W59c 


v»  V 

A    I 


^•••••^M   ^ 


-.  i  r  nun  rrn<».- 


THE  CAVALIER  DISMOUNTED: 


A1ST     ESSAY 


ON  THE  ORIGIN  OF  THE  FOUNDERS  OF  THE 


THIRTEEN    COLONIES. 


"  We  are  the  gentlemen  of  this  country." 


ROBERT  TOOMBS,  in  1860. 


"Our  Plantations  in  America,  New  England  excepted,  have  been  generally 
fettled,  1,  by  Malcontents  with  the  Administrations  from  Time  to  Time;  2,  by 
fraudulent  Debtors,  as  a  refuge  from  their  Creditors;  and  by  Convicts  or  Crimi- 
nal*, who  chose  Transportation  rather  than  Death." 

Dr.  WILLIAM  DOUGLASS,  1749. 


MEMBER  OP  THE  MASSACHUSETTS  HISTORICAL  SOCIETY,  AMD  OF  THE 
NEW-ESGLAHD  HISTORIC-GENEALOGICAL  SOCIETY. 


s  .A.  LIE  IM:  : 
PUBLISHED    BY    G.    M.    WHIPPLE    &    A.    A.    SMITH. 

1  864. 


I  <)  0  5 


IF  ^  o  IE  . 


This  essay  is  an  enlargement  of  an  article  which  appeared  in 
the  Continental  Magazine  for  June,  1863.  The  additions  are 
mainly  of  authorities  quoted,  and  though  but  a  portion  of  the  wri- 
ter's collections  are  here  printed,  it  is  presumed  that  there  are  enough 
to  substantiate  his  assertions.  Two  points  are  intended  to  be  dis- 
cussed. The  first  is  the  proportion  of  native-born  citizens  in  the  Uni- 
ted States,  descended  from  the  inhabitants  in  1790.  The  second  is 
the  origin  of  the  ancestors  of  the  colonists. 

The  result  of  investigations  of  the  first  point,  differs  widely 
from  the  opinion  of  recent  journalists.  In  the  New  York  Shipping  - 
List  for  Sept.  24th,  1864.  will  be  found  a  statement,  that  the  natu- 
ral increase  of  the  colonists  of  1790,  would  amount  to  only  eight  mil- 
lions out  of  nearly  thirty  millions,  now  inhabiting  the  United  States. 
If  there  be  no  mistake  in  the  table  prepared  from  the  official  Census 
of  the  United  States,  the  reverse  of  this  statement  is  the  truth. 
Twenty  millions  of  our  citizens  were  in  1860  descended  from  our  orig- 
inal colonists,  and  only  six  and  one  half  millions  were  foreign-born 
or  descended  from  immigrants  arriving  here  since  1790. 

This  question  is  one  of  too  great  importance  to  remain  thus 
doubtful.  Our  nationality  is  a  stubborn  fact ;  and  the  question  is  to 
be  solved  whether  we  are  formed  from  a  heterogenous  collection  of  all 
nationalities,  or  have  in  reality  one  predominant  race  which  gives  its 
tone  to  the  whole.  The  opinion  herein  expressed  is,  that  the  English 
race  predominates  here,  and  that  the  reason  of  its  influence  is  to  be 
found  in  the  fact  that  New  England  was  so  intensely  English.  If 
the  figures  be  correct,  New  England  has  contributed  one  quarter  or 
one  third  of  the  population  of  the  country,  and  this  portion  has  con- 
stantly allied  itself  to  the  English  part  of  the  remainder  of  our  pop- 
ulation. Hence  the  preponderance  of  the  English  language,  laws 
and  national  characteristics. 

As  to  the  second  point,  our  investigations  have  been  mainly  di- 
rected toward  the  correction  of  false  statements  made  by  the  Kebel 
emissaries  and  press.  It  is  not  a  grateful  task  to  be  obliged  to  ex- 


pose  any  blemish  in  our  origin  as  a  nation.  For  many  years  it  has 
been  customary  to  take  the  assertions  of  the  Southerners  as  truth,  be- 
cause these  statements  were  gratifying  to  our  pride.  We  should  even 
have  been  most  unwilling  to  commence  an  attack  upon  our  South- 
ern citizens  on  any  point'  of  ancestral  dignity  ;  but  when  the  assault 
has  been  from  them,  it  is  impossible  to  refrain  from  exposing  the 
weakness  of  their  position.  Their  reckless  assertions  have  compelled 
us  to  vindicate  our  ancestors  from  an  imaginary  stain,  and  the  pro- 
cess has  led  us  to  examine  the  antecedents  of  our  accusers. 

Let  no  one  so  far  misinterpret  the  object  of  this  Essay  as  to  im- 
agine that  an  undue  importance  is  attached  to  the  claims  of  gentle 
descent.  We  simply  accept  our  opponents'  opinion  of  the  value  of  a 
long  and  distinguished  pedigree  ;  and  we  exhibit  our  genealogies  on- 
ly when  we  are  told  that  we  are  disgraced  by  possessing  none. 

When  the  history  of  thi>  war  is  written  dispassionately,  one  of 
the  first  problems  to  be  discussed  will  l)e  the  cause  of  the  diversity  of 
the  social  structure  of  the  free  and  the  slave  states.  Should  the 
facts  here  presented  be  then  examined,  it  may  prove  that  an  oligarchy 
was  possible  in  the  Southern  states,  tacause  that  there  had  never  been 
any  true  equality  there,  and  because  so  great  a  proportion  of  their 
inhabitants  sprang  from  the  ignorant  and  vicious  portion  of  the  Euro- 
pean nations.  It  may  also  prove  that  the  Northern  states  rose  to  the 
necessities  of  their  position  as  the  forlorn  hope  of  republicanism,  be- 
cause their  citizens  inherited  the  bold  spirit  of  freedom  from  ances- 
tors whose  rights  had  been  for  centuries  untrammelled ;  because  two 
centuries  of  self-government,  and  freedom  of  thought  and  action  had 
enabled  our  portion  of  the  English  race  to  outstrip  every  other  nation 
in  its  perception  of  the  truth,  that  "  freedom  is  the  birth-right  of  ev- 
ery human  being." 


CLAIMS   OF   THE   SOUTHERNERS. 

One  of  the  most  monstrous  assertions  of  the  leaders  of 
the  rebellion,  was  that  which  arrogates  to  the  inhabitants  of 
the  seceding  States  a  superiority  over  their  Northern  breth- 
ren in  respect  to  their  ancestry.  Not  only  did  they  claim  to 
be  a  nation  peculiarly  free  from  intermixture  with  foreign- 
ers, but  they  claimed  one  and  all  to  be  of  English  Parent- 
age, and  deduced  their  pedigree  exclusively  from  one  class 
of  Englishmen,  the  gentry.  The  inhabitants  of  the  Loyal 
States  were  described  not  only  as  mongrel  in  race,  but  the 
English  portion  of  it  was  declared  to  be  of  the  most  igno- 
ble extraction.  I  will  not  weary  my  readers  by  the  details 
of  these  accounts,  yet  fresh  in  their  memories.  It  is  per- 
haps sufficient  to  say  that  the  cry  of  "  Cavalier  and  Puri- 
tan" was  again  raised,  and  English  sympathy  was  evoked  in 
behalf  of  the  oppressed  gentlemen. 

I  propose  in  this  sketch  to  prove  the  utter  falsity  of 
both  assertions ;  to  prove  that  the  South  is  not  homogene- 
ous and  its  English  element  is  not  of  gentle  origin ;  to  show 
that  New  England  is  in  the  highest  degree  a  purely  English 
community,  and  that  its  colonists  were  not  of  the  lowest 
rank. 

I  shall  confine  myself  to  authorities  whose  statements 
were  made  long  before  the  commencement  of  our  civil  war. 
in  order  that  no  reproach  of  partiality  may  attach  to  them ; 
and  in  most  instances,  I  shall  be  able  to  use  the  words  of 
Southerners,  writing  of  matters  in  which  they  had  a  strong 
personal  interest. 


TWs  matter  of  purity  of  race  is  one  of  no  trivial  im- 
portance. It  would  be  contrary  to  the  spirit  of  our  institu- 
tions for  us  to  attempt  to  give  to  ancestral  claims  the  impor- 
tance which  attach  to  them  in  monarchical  countries ;  and 
yet  this  very  rebellion  teaches  us  that  there  are  important 
problems  connected  with  the  subject  which  even  republicans 
cannot  ignore. 

We  have  seen  in  one  portion  of  our  Union,  a  dominant 
class,  small  in  number,  but  allied  in  interest,  successfully 
leading  astray  multitudes  whose  true  interests  were  diamet- 
rically opposed  to  any  revolt ;  and  we  have  seen  in  the  oth- 
er portion,  vast  communities  holding  firm  allegiance  to  writ- 
ten laws,  yielding  unswerving  obedience  to  their  duly  ap- 
pointed authorities,  and,  despite  apparent  diversities  of  ori- 
gin and  interests,  maintaining  themselves  in  the  bonds  of 
an  imperishable  union. 

The  Southerners  and  their  English  allies  have  claimed 
that  their  unanimity  proceeded  from  their  common  origin 
and  gentle  parentage;  the  unanimity  of  the  North  they  have 
long  denied  and  can  now  regard  only  as  inexplicable.  We 
hold  on  the  contrary  that  the  North  is  united  because  that 
it  is  homogeneous,  and  that  the  apparent  unanimity  of  the 
South  is  only  enforced  by  a  vigorous  tyranny,  founded  upon 
centuries  of  oppression  and  possible  only  through  the  faulty 
construction  of  its  early  institutions. 

That  there  has  been  a  wide  diversity  in  the  construc- 
tion of  society,  North  and  South,  from  the  commencement  of 
the  colonies  of  Virginia  and  New  England,  is  undisputable. 
Accident  has  brought  these  original  peculiarities  in  antago- 
nism, but  we  must  not  be  misled  as  to  their  true  significance. 

In  the  Southern  Colonies,  as  will  be  proved,  society  r<  - 
ceived  a  form  somewhat  analogous  to  that  of  tin-  England 
of  two  centuries  ago ;  an  aristocratic  form,  a  base  and  spu- 
rious imitation  of  a  bad  original,  was  imposed  upon  the  in- 
fant settlements.  In  England  in  1630,  the  rank  of  the  gen- 
try was  established,  and  it  had  a  certain  meaning  and  cause. 
This  modified  form  of  feudalism  had  a  reasonable  founda- 
tion. The  great  land-owners  were  a  distinct  class  from 


their  tenants  and  inferiors  j  they  were  the  natural  leaders 
and  rulers  according  to  the  rule  of  progression  which  had 
elevated  the  entire  community  from  the  barbarism  of  the 
feudal  ages.  The  country  gentleman,  whose  family  had  been 
known  and  respected  for  four  centuries,  seemed  a  natural 
chief  to  those  whose  ancestors  had  during  that  period  owned 
allegiance  to  the  name.  To  this  class  had  been  confined 
nearly  all  of  the  wealth,  valor  and  culture  of  the  nation. 

When  Virginia  and  the  other  Southern  Atlantic  colo- 
nies were  planted,  however,  the  emigrants  took  with  them 
but  the  empty  form  of  their  native  customs.  As  will  be 
proved,  very  few  of  them  possessed  any  hereditary  claim  to 
the  rank  of  gentlemen,  and  even  these  were  without  the  in- 
dispensible  body  of  hereditary  retainers,  in  whom  a  rever- 
ential submission  was  a  matter  of  faith. 

In  a  country  where  a  man's  daily  food  depended  upon 
his  daily  labor,  where  patents  of  land  embraced  leagues,  and 
where  equality  was  a  necessity,  what  chance  was  there  even 
for  the  best  blood  of  England  to  establish  an  aristocracy? 

In  the  true  sense,  in  the  signification  yet  attached  to 
the  word  in  Europe,  they  never  did  establish  an  aristocra- 
cy, yet  they  founded  an  imitation  which  has  yearly  become 
more  despicable.  Instead  of  tenants,  the  new  aristocrats 
peopled  their  lands  with  black  slaves,  or  white  convicts 
bound  to  them  for  a  term  of  years.  As  a  natural  conse- 
quence their  aristocracy  became  composed  not  of  those  who 
had  hereditary  rank, — not  of  gentry  in  the  English  sense, — 
but  of  all  those  who  could  invest  capital  in  flesh  and  blood. 
In  Virginia  and  the  Carolinas,  the  slave-owners  usurped  the 
name  of  gentlemen;  they  had  a  sufficient  intermixture  of 
that  class  to  serve  as  a  screen,  and  there  were  none  to  ques- 
tion their  claims. 

Yet  it  must  be  borne  in  mind  that  these  absurd  claims 
have  been  pushed  offensively  only  within  the  last  few  years. 
We  have  yet  to  learn  that  during  colonial  times  or  the  dark 
period  of  the  Revolution,  any  superiority  was  claimed  by 
the  South  over  the  North.  It  has  only  been  since  our  na- 
tional prosperity  became  so  great,  that  these  false  aspersions 


have  been  indulged  in,  and  a  Cavalier  has  presumed  to  ar- 
rogate a  precedence  over  a  Puritan. 

To  prove  the  inherent  absurdity  of  the  claims  of  the 
South,  I  beg  leave  to  present  certain  tables  compiled  from 
the  official  Census  returns. 

I  assume  in  the  following  table  that  the  inhabitants  of 
the  United  States  in  1790  were  citizens  by  birth,  and  by  de- 
ducting at  the  end  of  each  decade  the  number  of  immigrants 
we  have  what  may  fairly  be  claimed  as  the  percentage  of  nat- 
ural increase.  I  have  added  the  slight  excess  over  the  per- 
centage to  the  column  of  native  born,  believing  this  advan- 
tage at  least  belongs  to  them  : 

WHITE    POPULATION    OF    THE    UNITED    STATES. 
TABLE  No.  1.—  INCKEASE   AND  IMMIGRATION. 


1800 


1810 


1830 


lf» 

i-S. 
83.7 


32.1 


25.1 


ToUl  per 


8,172,464 


7,88*317 


10.5(19,815 


Nativt-i. 
1760 

Allen*. 
1800 

Allen*. 
1810 

Allen* 

Allen*. 
1880 

Allen* 

Allen*. 
1850 

Allen*. 
1800 

1890 

1840 

3,172,464 
1,071,971 

50,000 

70,000 

114.000 

151.824 

599.125 

4,244,435 

ir,,'ii« 

5.709,725 
1,835,672 

35. 

70,000 
22,470 

2i424,228 

87,450 
28,071 

92,470    114,000 
29,781      36,594 

MHyM 

115,521 

122.251    150.594    151,824 
35,452      43,673      44,028 

12.869.0fi9 

149,022 

157,703    194^67    195,852    .','.*,  125 

16,107,768    186,425    197,286    243,028    245,009    749,505     1,713,251 

44,456      47,151      58,083     58,557    179,131        409,467    2,598,214 


20,706,425         19,976,762    230,881    244,437    301.111 


2,122,718    2.598^14 


This  table  shows  us  that  in  the  States  in  1860,  out  of 
26,706,425  white  inhabitants,  19,976,762  were  the  descend- 
ants of  the  original  citizens  of  1790.  I  omit  the  territo- 
ries, as  the  number  of  inhabitants  cannot  affect  the  result, 
and  it  is  difficult  to  decide  upon  their  nationality. 

In  Table  II,  I  propose  to  divide  the  inhabitants  of 
1790  into  four  classes,  the  first  comprising  New  England ; 
the  second,  New  York,  New  Jersey,  and  Pennsylvania ;  the 
third,  Virginia,  North  Carolina,  South  Carolina,  and  Geor- 
gia; and  the  fourth,  Delaware,  Maryland,  Kentucky  and 
Tennessee. 


Allowing  to  each  class  the  same  percentage  of  increase 
as  in  the  former  table,  we  shall  see  how  our  nineteen  mil- 
lions of  native-born  citizens  originated : 


Date. 

Per  cent,  of 
Increase. 

Total  as  per 
"  Native  " 
column, 
Table  No.  1.  | 

New  Eng- 
land. 

New 
York  &c. 

Virginia 
4-c. 

Delaware 
&o. 

1790  .... 

33.7 

3,172,464 

992,781 
335,417 

908,195 
306,911 

923,383 
312,030 

348,105 
117,613 

1800  .... 

34.4 

4,244,435 

1,328,198 
458,465 

1,215,106 
419,596 

1,235,413 
426,582 

465,718 
160,647 

1810  .... 

32.1 

5,709,725 

1,786,663 
574,369 

1,634,702 
525,589 

1,661,995 
534,350 

626,365 
201,364 

1820  .... 

32.1 

7,545,397 

2,361,032 
758,541 

2,160,291 
694,103 

2,196,345 
705,676 

827,729 
265,908 

1830  .... 

29 

9,969,625 

3,119,573 
907,176 

2,854,394 
830,274 

2,902,021 
844,086 

1,093,637 
317,908 

1840  .... 

25.1 

12,869,069 

4,026,749 
1,012,464 

3,684,668 
927,852 

3,746,107 
943,272 

1,411,545 
355,111 

1850  .... 

23.9 

16,107,768 

5,039,213 
1,210,270 

4,612,520 
1,108,292 

4,689,379 
1,126,661 

1,766,656 
423,771 

1860  .... 

19,976,762 

6,249,483 

5,720,812 

5,816,040 

2,190,427 

Here  then  we  see  that  New  England  has  contributed 
nearly  one  third  of  the  number,  and  nearly  one  quarter  of 
the  entire  population. 

But  I  will  endeavor  further  to  analyze  the  constitution 
of  the  different  States  which  were  added  to  the  Union  pre- 
vious to  1860.  The  following  table  will  show  the  numbers 
at  each  decade : 


FREE  STATES. 


SLAVE  STATES. 


Date. 

Inhabitants 
per  Census.  j    Natives. 

Immi- 
grants. 

Inhabitants 
all  Native. 

Immi- 
grants. 

Immi- 
grants. 

1810  .... 

3,653,219 

3,421,365 

231,854 

2,19£,706 

95,654 

1820  .... 

5,030,371 

4,521,323 

509,048 

2,808,946 

215,048 

1830  .... 

6,874,302 

5,973,967 

900,335 

3,635,513 

360,145 

1840  .... 

9,560,165     I      7.711,417 

1,848,748 

4,604,873 

552,779 

1850 
1860  .... 

13,257,795 
17,993,585 

9,651,733 
11,970,295 

3,606,062 
6,023,290 

6,184,477 
8,712,840 

271,558 

706,373 

We  have  now  certain  data  from  which  to  argue,  and  I 
will  first  investigate  the  alleged  homogeneity  of  the  South. 
Conceding  that  every  citizen  of  the  two  classes  of  Virginia, 
etc.,  and  Delaware,  etc.,  in  1790,  was  indisputably  the  de- 
scendant of  an  English  cavalier,  and  that  the  increase  of 


6 

population  found  an  outlet  into  the  new  Slave  States,  how 
would  the  case  stand  ? 

In  1860  these  states  contained  8,712,840;  by  Table  H 
we  calculated  they  should  contain  8,006,467 ;  so  that  even 
in  this  case  there  are  some  700,000  foreigners.  But  a  little 
more  research  shows  that  the  case  is  much  more  unfavor- 
ble. 

Up  to  1840,  the  Southern  States  not  only  could  have 
furnished  all  the  settlers  in  the  Slave  States,  but  must  have 
sent  out  colonists.  In  1 840,  they  had  4,604,873  inhabitants ; 
add  to  this  the  natural  increase,  25.1  per  cent,  (1,155,823,) 
and  we  have  5,760,696  native  born,  and  423,781  foreigners 
required  to  make  their  total  of  6,184,477  inhabitants. 

But  in  the  next  decade,  add  to  the  5,760,696  native 
born  their  percentage  of  increase,  23.9  (1,376,806,)  and  we 
have  7,137,502,  requiring  1,575,338  foreigners,  more  tfianone 
sixth,  for  their  total  of  8,712,840  white  inhabitants. 

Ily  no  conceivable  chnncc  can  more  than  five  sixths  of 
th"  population  of  the  South  be  descended  from  the  English 
cavaliers. 

But  if  we  concede  to  every  Virginian,  not  only  his  in- 
herent gentility,  but  his  unswerving  purpose  never  to  emi- 
grate out  of  Slave  territory,  and  an  intuitive  presentiment 
which  pointed  out  which  were  to  be  the  slave  portions  of 
adjacent  Territories,  by  these  same  perrrntuircs  of  increase 
the  442,215  Virginian  cavaliers  of  ITiM)  could  be  the  pro- 
genitors of  only  2,785,927  patricians  to  rally  around  the 
model  cavalier  of  1860 — Jefferson  Davis. 

Lastly,  in  an  'estimate  published  in  1848  by  Mr.  Jesse 
Pickering,  devoted  entirely  to  the  consideration  of  immigra- 
tion as  a  national  question,  it  is  argued,  with  every  appear- 
ance of  truth,  that  in  1 840  the  foreign  population  of  the 
Slave  States  was  1,177,965.  But  these  must  have  displaced 
an  equal  number  of  the  native  born,  and  we  should  have  on- 
ly 3,426,908  of  that  class  in  1840,  4,287,061  in  1850,  and 
5,311,668  in  1860,  or  in  that  case  only  five  eights  of  the 
population  could  be  of  native  descent,  provided  that  not  one 
emigrated.  When  we  consider  that  the  great  immigration 


of  all  was  between  1840  and  1860,  we  are  forced  to  con- 
clude that  certainly  not  more  than  one  half  of  the  inhabi- 
tants of  the  present  Confederate  States  can  present  the 
faintest  claim  to  a  descent  from  the  citizens  of  1790. 

I  think  that  few  of  my  readers  will  now  dispute  that 
there  is  a  physical  impossibility  of  an  unity  of  race  among 
the  Southerners,  even  had  their  emigrant  forefathers  been 
all  of  one  nation.  But  they  were  of  divers  races  even  at 
the  commencement.  Let  us  examine  each  colony  separate- 

iy- 

VIRGINIA. 

Even  Virginia  was  not  entirely  English.  Barber's  ac- 
count of  the  State  (p.  451)  says  of  the  valley  of  the  Shen- 
andoah : 

"  The  eastern  part  of  the  valley  being  conveniently  sit- 
uated for  emigrants  from  Pennsylvania,  as  well  as  from  low- 
er Virginia,  the  population  there  came  to  be  a  mixture  of 
English  Virginians  and  Germans  and  Scotch-Irish  Presby- 
terians. The  German  Pennsylvanians,  being  passionate  lov- 
ers of  fat  lands,  no  sooner  heard  of  the  rich  valleys  of  the 
Shenando  and  its  branches,  than  they  began  to  join  their 
countrymen  from  Europe  in  pouring  themselves  forth  over 
the  country  above  Winchester.  Finding  the  main  Shenan- 
do mostly  preoccupied,  they  followed  up  the  north  and  south 
branches  on  both  sides  of  the  Massanutten,  or  Peaked 
Mountain,  until  they  tilled  up  all  the  beautiful  vales  of  the 
country  for  the  space  of  sixty  miles.  So  completely  did 
they  occupy  the  country,  that  the  few  stray  English  or  Irish 
settlers  among  them  did  not  sensibly  affect  the  homoge- 
neousness  of  the  population." 

And  again : 

"The  first  settlements  of  this  portion  of  the  valley 
were  made  by  the  Scotch  Irish,  with  a  few  original  Scotch 
among  them.  They  settled  in  the  neighborhoods  around 
Martinsburg,  in  Berkely  county,  Winchester,  and  almost  the 
entire  counties  of  Qmage  and  Guilford.  The  same  race 
went  on  into  North  Carolina,  and  settled  in  the  counties  of 
Orange  and  Guilford,  especially  in  the  northern  and  middle 
parts  of  the  latter  county." 

Beverley  writes,  (p.  228  :) 

"  The  French  refugees  sent  in  thither  by  the  charitable 
exhibition  of  his  late  majesty  King  William,  are  naturalized 


by  a  particular  law  for  that  purpose.  In  the  year  1699 
there  went  over  about  three  hundred  of  these,  and  in  the 
year  following  about  two  hundred  more,  and  so  on,  till  there 
arrived  in  all  between  seven  and  eight  hundred  men,  wom- 
en, and  children,  who  had  fled  from  France  on  account  of 
their  religion.'' 

Bishop  Meade  (ii.  75)  writes: 

"That  twelve  Protestant  German  families,  consisting  of 
about  fifty  persons,  arrived  April  17th,  in  Virginia,  and 
were  therein  settled  near  the  Rappahunnoek  river.  That 
in  1717,  seventeen  Protestant  German  families,  consisting 
of  about  fourscore  persons,  came  and  set  down  near  their 
countrymen.  And  many  more,  both  German  and  Swiss 
families,  are  likely  to  come  there  and  settle  likewise." 

This  report  was  made  in  1720. 

NDKTH  CAROLINA. 

"The  region  south  of  Albermarle,  as  far  down  as  Pain- 
lico  and  Neu.->-,  derived  the  larger  part  of  its  first  settlers 

from  the  counties  between  tin-  Sound  and  Virginia As 

early  as  1690,  Martin  informs  us  that  some  of  the  French 
Protestant  refugees  who  had  been  sent  by  the  royal  benevo- 
lence to  colonize  on  James  River  in  Virginia,  had  purchased 
lands  on  Pamlico  and  planted  themselves  upon  them. 

In  1707  came  a  second  body  of  French  emigrants,  con- 
siderable in  numbers,  from  the  James  River  settlement  in 
Virginia.  These  had  probably  been  allured  by  the  repre- 
sentations of  their  countrymen  who  preceded  them  in  1690 
and  settled  in  Pamlico.  This  second  migration  proceeded 
beyond  Pamlico,  and  made  their  home  on  Neuse  and  Trent 
rivers,  whence,  afterwards,  some  of  them  and  of  their  de- 
scendants passed  over  into  what  are  now  Onslow  and  Car- 
teret  counties,  where  their  names  are  still  to  be  found. 
These  last  French  emigrants,  all  Protestants,  brought  with 
them  into  Carolina  their  clergyman,  Phillipe  de  Richebourg, 
some  of  whose  descendants  are  still  living  in  our  county 
of  Buncombe.  After  a  time,  he,  with  a  portion  of  his  peo- 
ple, proceeded  farther  south,  and  they  planted  themselves 
on  the  Santee  River,  where  De  Richebourg  died. 

Two  or  three  years  after  this  addition  to  the  popula- 
tion, in  the  latter  part  of  1710,  a  considerable  accession 
was  made  by  the  arrival  of  a  large  number  of  Germans 
and  Swiss." 


"  The  Germans  were  from  Hiedelburg  and  its  vicinity 
on  the  Neckar,  in  the  Grand  Duchy  of  Baden,  and  had  been 
made  the  victims  of  religious  persecution,  because  they 
could  not  change  their  creed  with  each  successive  change 
of  their  rulers."  "It  so  happened  that  about  the  same  time, 
Christopher,  Baron  de  Graffenreid,  a  Swiss  nobleman  from 
Berne,  was  in  England  with  a  large  number  of  his  country- 
men ;  and  they  were  anxious  to  emigrate  to  America." .... 
"A  negotiation  therefore  commenced  between  these  com- 
missioners, the  Swiss  leaders,  and  the  lords  proprietors. 
The  result  was,  that  Graffenreid  and  Mitchell  agreed  to 
transport  one  hundred  families  of  the  palatines  (about  six 
hundred  and  fifty  persons,)  with  their  own  Swiss  colonists." 

"In  December,  1711,  these  German  and  Swiss  landed 
at  the  confluence  of  the  Neuse  and  Trent  Rivers,  and  the 
town  of  New  Berne  was  begun.  There  were  now,  there- 
fore, about  1710,  three  classes  of  settlers  in  the  state. 
First,  there  were  the  English,  on  the  northern  side  of  the 
Albemarle,  gradually  extending  themselves  westward  be- 
yond Chowan  River.  This  was  the  most  populous  part  of 
the  province.  Some  of  these  people  on  Albemarle  were  al- 
so making  their  way  southward  toward  Pamlico,  and  set- 
tling about  Bath,  while  some  probably  halted  in  the  inter- 
mediate region  of  Tyrrel. 

Next  there  were  the  French  Huguenots  of  the  two 
emigrations  from  Virginia  in  1690  and  1707.  The  first 
were  on  Pamlico,  the  last  on  Neuse,  and  chiefly  on  Trent 
River,  whence  some  of  them  have  wandered  into  what  are 
Onslow  and  Carteret  counties. 

Lastly  were  the  German  palatines  and  Swiss.  Of  the 
former  we  know  the  number,  six  hundred  and  fifty  ;  of  the 
latter  there  is  no  certain  statement  that  we  are  aware  of, 
though  they  are  said  in  some  documents  we  have  seen,  to 
have  been  fifteen  hundred." 

Hawks'  North  Carolina,  ii,  849. 

"A  great  number  of  French  refugees  were  this  year 
(1690)  sent,  at  the  King's  expense,  to  the  province  of  Vir- 
ginia, and  settled  themselves  on  James  river  :  others  pur- 
chased land  from  the  proprietors  of  Carolina  and  settled 
on  Pamlico  arid  Santee  Rivers."  Martin's  History  of 
North  Carolina  (New  Orleans  1829)  p.  192.  Martin  also 
mentions,  p.  232-3,  that  French  colonists  from  Virginia 
came  in  1708,  and  further  states,  "besides  a  great  number  of 
palatines,  fifteen  hundred  Swiss  followed."  In  1706  (p.  218) 

(2) 


10 

"  The  population  of  the  colony  was  composed  of  individ- 
uals of  different  nations,  and  consequently  of  various  sects : 
Scotch  Presbyterians,  Dutch  Lutherans,  French  Calvinists, 
Irish  Catholics,  English  Churchmen,  Quakers  and  Dissen- 
ters ;  emigrants  from  Bermuda  and  the  West  Indies,  which 
from  their  late  settlement,  could  not  be  places  remarkable 
for  the  education  of  voung  people  in  Christianity  and  mor- 
ality." 

In  the  appendix  to  his  History  is  an  account  of  the 
Moravians  who  settled  in  North  Carolina. 

SOUTH     CAROLINA. 

Mr.  Pickett,  whose  history  of  Alabama  was  published  at 
Charleston,  S.  C.,  in  1851,  adds,  "a  company  of  forty 
Jews,  acting  under  the  broad  principle  of  the  charter, 
which  gave  freedom  to  all  religions,  save  that  of  the  Rom- 
ish Church,  landed  at  Savannah.  Much  dissatisfaction,  both 
in  England  and  America,  arose  in  consequence  of  these  Is- 
raelites, and  Oglethorpe  was  solicited  to  send  them  imme- 
diately from  the  colony.  He,  however,  generously  permit- 
ted them  to  remain,  which  was  one  of  the  wisest  acts  of 
his  life,  for  they  and  their  descendants  were  highly  instru- 
mental in  developing  the  commercial  resources  of  this  wild 
land."  "The  colony  of  Georgia  had  prospered  under  the 
wise  guidance  of  Oglethorpe.  The  colonists,  being  from 
different  nations,  were  various  in  their  characters  and  reli- 
gious creeds.  Vandois,  Swiss,  Piedmontese,  Germans,  Mora- 
vians, Jews  from  Portugal,  Highlanders,  English,  and  Ital- 
ians were  thrown  together  in  this  fine  climate,  new  world, 
and  new  home." 

"Round  heads  and  cavaliers  alike  sought  refuge  in  Car- 
olina, which,  for  a  long  time,  remained  a  pet  province  of 
the  proprietors."  ***  "In  1674,  when  Nova  Belgia,  now 
New  York,  was  conquered  by  the  English,  a  number  of  tlm 
Dutch  from  that  place  sought  refuge  in  Carolina.  The 
proprietors  facilitated  their  desire,  and  provided  the  ships 
which  conveyed  them  to  Charlestown.  They  were  assigned 
lands  on  the  southwest  side  of  Ashley  river,  drew  lots  for 
their  property,  and  founded  a  town  which  they  called  James- 
town, but  which  they  afterwards  deserted  and  spread  them- 
selves throughout  the  country,  where  they  were  joined  by 
greater  numbers  from  ancient  Belgia. 

Two  vessels  filled  with  foreign,  perhaps  French,  prot- 
estants,  were  transported  to  Carolina,  at  the  expense  of 


11 

Charles  II,  in  1679  ;  and  the  revocation  of  the  edict  of 
Nantz,  a  few  years  afterwards,  by  which  the  Huguenots 
were  deprived  of  the  only  securities  of  life,  liberty  and  for- 
tune which  their  previous  struggles  had  left  them,  contribu- 
ted still  more  largely  to  the  infant  settlement,  and  provi- 
ded Carolina  with  some  of  the  noblest  portions  of  her 
growing  population."  The  History  of  South  Carolina,  by 
William  Gilmore  Simms.  Charleston  :  1840,  pp.  58-9. 

"Emigrants  followed,  though  slowly,  from  Switzerland, 
Germany,  and  Holland  ;  and  the  Santee,  the  Congaree,  the 
Wateree,  and  Edisto,  now  listened  to  the  strange  voices  of 
neveral  nations,  who,  in  the  old  world,  had  hardly  known 
each  other  except  as  foes."  Ibid,  p.  60. 

About  1731,  "a  colony  of  Swiss  settled  on  the  Savan- 
nah and  established  the  town  of  Purrysburgh.  Eleven 
townships  were  marked  out  on  various  rivers."  Ibid,  p. 
206. 

"From  this  period  (1761)  we  may  date  the  true  begin- 
ning not  only  of  the  prosperity,  but  the  independence  of 
Carolina Never  did  any  colony  flourish  in  a  more  sur- 
prising degree  than  South  Carolina,  as  soon  as  the  Chero- 
kees  were  overcome,  and  the  French  and  Spaniards  driven 
from  her  borders.  Multitudes  of  emigrants,  from  all  parts 
of  Europe,  flocked  to  the  interior,  and  pursuing  the  devious 
progress  of  the  streams,  sought  out  their  sources,  and 
planted  their  little  colonies  on  the  sides  of  lofty  hills,  or  in 
the  bosom  of  lovely  vallies. 

Six  hundred  poor  German  settlers  arrived  in  one  body ; 
Ireland  poured  forth  such  numbers  from  her  northern  coun- 
ties as  almost  threatened  the  depopulation  of  the  kingdom. 
Scarce  a  ship  sailed  for  any  of  the  plantations  that  was 
not  crowded  with  men,  women  and  children,  seeking  the 
warm  and  fertile  region  of  Carolina,  of  which  such  glowing 
tidings  had  reached  their  ears,  and  where  the  land  was 
proffered  in  bounties  to  all  new  comers.  Nor  did  the  col- 
ony receive  these  accessions  from  Europe  only.  In  the 
.space  of  a  single  year,  more  than  a  thousand  families  with 
their  effects,  their  cattle,  hogs,  and  horses,  crossed  the  Alle- 
ghanies  from  the  eastern  settlements  and  pitched  their 
tents  upon  the  Carolinean  frontiers."  Ibid,  p.  121. 

In  Carroll's  History  of  South  Carolina  (New  York, 
1836,)  will  be  found  a  reprint  of  Dr.  Hewit's  Historical 
Account  published  in  1779.  From  it  we  make  the  follow- 
ing quotations : 


12 

P.  87.  "The  next  acquisition  America  gained,  was 
from  the  revocation  of  the  edict  of  Nantz  ;  in  conse- 
quence of  which  the  flames  of  persecution  broke  out  in 
France,  and  drove  many  of  its  best  subjects  out  of  that 
kingdom.  These  Protestant  refugees  were  beneficial  in 
many  respects  to  England  and  Holland,  and  served  greatly 
to  promote  the  trade  and  manufactures  of  these  nations. 
Among  the  other  colonies  in  America  which  reaped  advan- 
tage from  this  impolitic  measure  of  France,  Carolina  had  a 
larger  share.  Many  of  the  Protestant  refugees,  having  pur- 
chased lands  from  the  proprietors,  embarked  with  their  fam- 
ilies for  that  colony,  and  proved  some  of  its  best  and  most 
industrious  inhabitants."  P.  205.  In  1715,  "the  Yenias- 
sees  being  expelled  from  Indian  Land,  the  assembly  passed 
two  acts  to  appropriate  those  lands  gained  by  conquest,  for 
the  use  and  encouragement  of  such  of  his  majesty's  subjects 
as  should  come  over  and  settle  upon  them.  Extracts  of  these 
acts  being  sent  to  England  and  Ireland  and  published  among 
the  people,  five  hundred  men  from  Ireland  transported  them- 
selves to  Carolina,  to  take  the  benefit  of  them." 

P.  295.  In  1732,  John  Peter  Perry,  a  native  of  Neuf- 
chatel  in  Switzerland,  ''having  while  in  Carolina  furnished 
himself  with  a  flattering  account  of  the  soil  and  climate,  and 
of  the  excellence  and  freedom  of  the  provincial  government, 
returned  to  Switzerland  and  published  it  among  the  people. 
Immediately  one  hundred  and  seventy  poor  Switzers  a- 
gived  to  follow  him,  and  were  transported  to  the  fertile  and 
delightful  province  as  he  described  it  ;  and  not  long  after- 
wards two  hundred  more  came  over  and  joined  them." 

1*.  324.  "By  this  time  (1735)  an  account  of  the  great 
privileges  and  indulgences  granted  by  the  crown  for  the  en- 
couragement of  emigrants  to  Carolina,  had  been  published 
through  Britain  and  Ireland,  and  many  industrious  people  in 
different  parts  had  resolved  to  take  the  benefit  of  his  majes- 
ty's bounty.  Multitudes  of  labourers  and  husbandmen  in 
Ireland,  oppressed  by  landlords  and  bishops,  and  unable  by 
their  utmost  diligence  to  procure  a  comfortable  subsistence 
for  their  families,  embarked  for  Carolina.  The  first  colony 
of  Irish  people  had  lauds  granted  them  near  San  tee  river, 
and  formed  the  settlement  called  Williainsburg  township." 

P.  376.  "The  plan  of  settling  townships,  especially 
as  it  came  accompanied  with  the  royal  bounty,  had  proved 
beneficial  in  many  respects.  It  encouraged  multitudes  of 
poor  oppressed  people  in  Ireland,  Holland  and  Germany  to 


13 

emigrate,  by  which  means  the  province  received  a  number 
of  frugal  and  industrious  settlers." 

P.  485-7.  In  1763,  "one  Stumpel,  who  had  been  an  offi- 
cer in  the  King  of  Prussia's  service,  being  reduced  at  the 
peace,  applied  to  the  British  ministry  for  a  tract  of  land  in 
America,  and  having  got  some  encouragement,  returned  to 
Germany,  where,  by  deceitful  promises,  he  seduced  between 
five  and  six  hundred  ignorant  people  from  their  native  coun- 
country."  He  abandoned  them  in  England,  and  having 
been  supported  by  charity  for  a  time,  "his  majesty,  sensi- 
ble that  his  colony  of  South  Carolina  had  not  its  propor- 
tion of  white  inhabitants,  and  having  expressed  a  particular 
attachment  to  it,  signified  his  desire  of  transporting  them 
to  that  province."  Accordingly  preparations  were  made, 
ships  were  furnished,  and  they  landed  at  Charleston,  in 
April,  1764. 

P.  488.  "Besides  foreign  Protestants,  several  persons 
from  England  and  Scotland  resorted  to  Carolina  after  the 
peace.  But  of  all  ot/ier  countries  none  has  furnished  the  prov- 
ince with  so  many  inhabitants  as  Ireland.  In  the  northern 
counties  of  that  kingdom  the  spirit  of  emigration  seized 
the  people  to  such  a  degree,  that  it  threatened  almost  a  to- 
tal depopulation.  Such  multitudes  of  husbandmen,  labour- 
ers and  manufacturers  flocked  over  the  Atlantic,  that  the 
landlords  began  to  be  alarmed,  and  concert  ways  and  means 
for  preventing  the  growing  evil.  Scarce  a  ship  sailed  for 
any  of  the  plantations  that  was  not  crowded  with  men,  wo- 
men, and  children.  But  the  bounty  allowed  new  settlers  in 
Carolina  proved  a  great  encouragement,  and  induced  num- 
bers of  these  people,  notwithstanding  the  severity  of  the 
climate,  to  resort  to  that  province.  The  merchants,  finding 
this  bounty  equivalent  to  the  expenses  of  the  passage,  from 
avaricious  motives  persuaded  the  people  to  embark  for  Car- 
olina, and  often  crammed  such  numbers  of  them  into  their 
ships  that  they  were  in  danger  of  being  stifled  during  the 
passage,  and  sometimes  were  landed  in  such  a  starved  and 
sickly  condition,  that  numbers  of  them  died  before  they  left 
Charleston. 

Many  causes  may  be  assigned  for  this  spirit  of  emigration 
that  prevailed  so  much  in  Ireland :  some,  no  doubt,  emigra- 
ted from  a  natural  restlessness  of  temper,  and  a  desire  of 
roving  abroad,  without  any  fixed  object  in  view.  Others 
were  enticed  over  by  flattering  promises  from  their  friends 
and  relations,  who  had  gone  before  them.  But  of  other 


14 

causes  of  emigration,  oppression  at  home  was  the  most  pow- 
erful and  prevalent.  Most  men  have  a  natural  fondness 
and  partiality  for  their  native  country,  and  leave  it  with  re- 
luctance while  they  are  able  to  earn  a  comfortable  liveli- 
hood in  it.  That  spot  where  they  first  drew  the  breath  of 
life,  that  society  in  which  they  spent  the  gay  season  of  youth, 
the  religion,  the  manners  and  customs  of  those  among 
whom  they  were  educated,  all  conspire  to  aflect  the  heart, 
and  endear  their  native  country  to  them.  But  poverty  and 
oppression  will  break  through  every  natural  tie  and  endear- 
ment, and  compel  men  to  rove  abroad  in  search  of  some 
asylum  against  domestic  hardships.  Hence  it  happens  that 
many  poor  people  forsook  their  native  land,  and  preferred 
the  burning  sky  and  unwholesome  climate  of  Carolina,  to 
the  temperate  and  mild  air  of  their  mother  country.  The 
success  that  attended  some  friends  who  had  gone  before 
them  being  also  industriously  published  in  Ireland,  and 
with  all  the  exaggerations  of  travellers,  gave  vigor  to  the 
spirit  of  adventure,  and  induced  multitudes  to  follow  their 
countrymen,  and  run  all  ha/ards  abroad,  rather  than  starve 
at  home.  Government  winked  at  those  emigrations,  and 
every  year  brought  fiesh  strength  to  Carolina,  inscmuth 
that  the  lands  in  Ireland  were  in  danger  of  lying  waste  for 
want  of  labourers,  and  the  manufactures  of  dwindling  into 
nothing." 

GEORGIA. 

The  records  of  the  colonization  of  this  state  are  more 
imperfect  than  those  of  the  Carolinas.  It  was  emphatically 
a  pauper  settlement.  Its  charter,  dated  in  1732,  states  that 
"whereas  we  are  credibly  informed  that  many  of  our  poor 
subjects  are  through  misfortunes  and  want  of  employment 
reduced  to  great  necessity,  insomuch  as  by  their  labour  they 
are  not  able  to  provide  a  maintenance  for  themselves  and 
families ;  and  if  they  had  means  to  defray  their  charges  of 
passage,  and  other  expenses  incident  to  new  settlements, 
they  would  be  glad  to  settle  in  any  of  our  provinces  in 
America ;"  therefore  certain  lands  were  granted  to  u  Cor- 
poration. 

In  a  tract  published  in  1741,  and  reprinted  in  the  Geor- 
gia Historical  Collections,  ii,  305,  it  is  shown  that  in  eight 
years  ending  9th  June,  1740,  1,521  persons  had  been  sent 


15 

over  on  the  charity,  whereof  915  were  British  and  606  for- 
eign. The  same  tract,  ii,  308,  says  about  twenty  miles  fur- 
ther up  the  river  is  the  town  of  Ebenezer,  where  the  Sals- 
burgers  are  settled,  with  two  ministers,  one  of  whom  com- 
puted that  the  number  of  his  congregation  in  June  1738 
consisted  of  one  hundred  aud  forty  six.  ...  At  their  desire 
another  embarkation  of  their  countrymen,  who  are  willing  to 
go  from  Germany  and  join  them,  is  designed  to  be  sent  for 
with  all  convenient  speed. 

"In  the  southern  part  of  the  province  is  the  town  of 
New  Inverness,  where  the  Highlanders  are  settled." 

A  letter  from  Thomas  Coram,  dated  1734,  (Georgia 
Hist.  Coll.  ii,  971,)  says,  "But  I  beg  leave  to  say  something 
of  the  Jews,  who  to  the  number  of  between  forty  and  fifty 
have  procured  themselves  to  be  already  settled  there  con- 
trary to  the  will,  and  without  the  consent  of  the  trustees, 
and  there  are  more  of  their  nation  now  going  over  to  them. 
I  humbly  conceive  these  shocking  matters  require  your  most 
serious  attention ;  for  unless  you  speedily  take  some  vigor- 
ous resolutions  to  suppress  effectually  the  two  great  evils 
aforesaid,  Georgia  will  soon  become  a  Jewish  colony." 

Hewitt's  account,  already  cited,  ( Carroll's  History  of  S. 
Carolina  i,  310,)  says,  "  But  after  the  representation  and  me- 
morial from  the  legislature  of  Carolina  reached  Britain,  the 
nation  considerd  Georgia  to  be  of  the  utmost  importance  to 
the  British  settlements  in  America,  and  began  to  make  still 
more  vigorous  efforts  for  its  speedy  population.  The  first 
embarkations  of  poor  people  from  England,  being  collected 
from  towns  and  cities,  were  found  equally  idle  and  useless 
members  of  society  abroad,  as  they  had  been  at  home.  A 
hardy  and  bold  race  of  men,  inured  to  rural  labour  and  fa- 
tigue, they  were  persuaded  would  be  much  better  adapted 
both  for  cultivation  and  defence.  To  find  men  possessed  of 
these  qualifications,  the  trustees  turned  their  eyes  to  Ger- 
many and  the  Highlands  of  Scotland,  and  resolved  to  send 
over  a  number  of  Scotch  and  German  labourers  to  their  in- 
fant province.  When  they  published  their  terms  at  Inver- 
ness, a  hundred  and  thirty  Highlanders  immediately  accept- 
ed them,  and  were  transported  to  Georgia.  A  township  on 
the  river  Altamaha,  which  was  considered  as  the  boundary 
between  the  British  and  Spanish  territories,  was  allotted  for 
the  Highlanders,  on  which  dangerous  situation  they  settled, 
and  built  a  town  which  they  called  New  Inverness.  About 


16 

the  same  time  a  hundred  and  seventy  Germans  embarked 
with  James  Oglethorpe  and  were  fixed  in  another  quarter, 
so  that  in  the  space  of  three  years,  Georgia  received  above 
four  hundred  British  subjects,  and  about  one  hundred  and 
seventy  foreigners.  Afterwards  several  adventurers,  both 
from  Scotland  and  Germany,  followed  their  countrymen,  and 
added  further  strength  to  the  province, and  the  trustees  flat- 
tered themselves  with  the  hopes  of  soon  seeing  it  in  a  prom- 
ising condition." 

In  White's  Historical  Collections  of  Georgia,  (New 
York,  1855,)  p.  37,  is  a  list  of  grants  of  land  from  1741 — 
1754.  Without  attempting  an  exact  analysis,  it  is  evident 
that  not  one  fourth  can  be  considered  English  names.  The 
German  and  Scotch  names  constitute  by  fur  the  greater  por- 
tion. 

White's  Statistics  of  Georgia,  (Savannah,  1849)  mentions. 
p.  96,  the  arrival  of  the  Germans  in  1733  and  their  settle- 
ment at  Ebenezer,  and  page  101,  the  settlement  of  Jews  at 
Savannah. 

Such  an  array  of  authorities  ought  to  be  conclusive 
against  any  idea  that  Phigland  ha?  been  the  fountain  head, 
even  of  that  portion  which  may  be  considered  as  descended 
from  the  early  colonists.  Even  Africa  has  a  certain  undeni. 
able  claim. 

In  1853,  a  memoir  of  James  Fontaine  was  published,  ac- 
companied by  letters  from  members  of  his  family.  He  was 
a  Huguenot,  who  had  settled  in  Virginia,  and  his  descendants 
have  been  among  the  most  distinguished  of  her  citizens. 

The  letters  of  his  sons  to  relatives  in  England  are  very 
instructive.  I  quote  from  one  from  Peter  Fontaine,  dated 
March  2,  1756,  in  which  he  regrets  that  the  English  had  not 
intermarried  with  the  Indians : 

"But  here  methinks  I  can  hear  you  observe,  'What! 
Englishmen  intermarry  with  Indians?'  But  I  can  convince 
you  that  they  are  guilty  of  much  more  heinous  practices, 
more  unjustifiable  in  the  sight  of  God  and  man  (if  that  in- 
deed may  be  called  a  bad  practice;)  for  many  base  wretches 
among  us  take  up  with  negro  women,  by  which  means  the 
country  swarms  with  mulatto  bastards ;  and  these  mulattoes, 
if  but  three  generations  removed  from  the  black  father  or 


17 

mother,  may,  by  the  indulgence  of  the  laws  of  the  country, 
intermarry  with  the  white  people,  and  actually  do  every  day 
so  marry" 

This  is  the  testimony  of  a  Virginian  gentleman,  made 
a  century  ago ;  I  do  not  care  to  more  than  point  to  the  pos- 
sible infusion  of  other  than  English  blood  into  the  veins  of 
the  gentlemen  who  desire  to  adopt  the  Cavalier  as  their 
national  device. 

Farther  than  this,  we  read  in  Wirt's  life  of  Patrick 
Henry,  (ed.  1818  p.  241,)  that  in  1784  Patrick  Henry  pro- 
posed a  bill  which  passed  through  two  readings,  entitled 
"a  Bill  for  the  encouragement  of  marriages  with  the  In- 
dians," which  proposed  a  bounty  to  every  free  white  male 
who  would  marry  an  Indian  female  of  lawful  age,  or  any 
free  female  who  would  marry  with  any  male  Indian  of  law- 
ful age,  and  enacting  "that  the  offspring  of  the  intermar- 
riages aforesaid  shall  be  entitled,  in  all  respects,  to  the  same 
rights  and  privileges,  under  the  laws  of  this  commonwealth, 
as  if  they  had  proceeded  from  intermarriages  among  free 
white  inhabitants  thereof." 

It  is  not  necessary  to  inquire  what  percentage  of  In- 
dian or  Negro  blood  may  be  found  in  the  free  population  of 
the  Southern  States ;  it  is  evident  that  the  purity  of  lineage 
so  essential  to  a  race  of  gentlemen,  has  been  often  imperill- 
ed since  the  first  colonists  landed  here. 

SOCIAL  STATUS  OF  THE  ENGLISH  COLONISTS. 

We  now  proceed  to  examine  the  social  position,  prior 
to  the  emigration,  of  those  Englishmen  who  did  in  a  certain 
degree  colonize  the  present  Slave  States,  and  in  a  much 
greater  degree  colonize  New  England.  I  must  confess  hav- 
ing long  wondered  at  the  persistent  statement  of  English- 
men that  the  citizens  of  the  United  States  were  the  offspring 
of  the  vagabonds  and  felons  of  Europe.  Having  examined 
the  history  of  the  families  of  New  England  with  much  inter- 
est, and  finding  therein  no  confirmation  of  this  idea,  I  had 
held  it  but  the  outbreak  of  prejudice  and  ignorance.  Yet 
since  the  present  rebellion  has  caused  so  much  inquiry  into 
the  antecedents  of  the  Southerners,  I  find  that  the  assertion 

(3) 


18 

is  well  fou.ided,  but  that  it  concerns  those  who  have  hither- 
to been  loudest  in  their  claims  to  a  distinguished  ancestry. 
The  citations  may  perhaps  be  best  examined  by  arrang- 
ing them  under  the  names  of  the  several  colonies. 

NORTH     CAROLINA. 

"There  was  also  a  third  class  of  labourers  whom  our 
records  show  to  have  been  in  the  colony.  These  were  white 
men,  English  convicts  transported  to  America  for  their 
crimes.  .  .  .  Exile  was  first  introduced  as  a  punishment  in 
English  law,  in  the  reign  of  Eli/aheth.  anno  1596.  It  was 
tin -n  enacted  that  "such  rogues  as  were  dangerous  to  the 
interior  people,  should  be  banished  the  realm.  James  I  vir- 
tually converted  this  into  an  act  for  transportation  to  Amer- 
ica, without  any  aid  from  parliament,  and,  by  the  mere  ex- 
ercise of  his  own  will.  He  wrote  a  letter,  in  1619,  to  the 
treasurer  and  council  of  Virginia.  <  residing  in  London,) 
commanding  them  "to  send  a  hundred  dissolute  persons  to 
Virginia,  which  the  Knight  Marshal  would  deliver  to  them 
for  that  purpose."  The  first  English  Statute  which  uses 
the  word  " transport,"  was  passed  in  18  Charles  II  (1666.) 
This  gives  a  power  to  the  judges  at  their  discretion  either 
"to  execute  or  t  ran -port  to  America  for  life  the  moss-troop- 
ers of  Cumberland  and  Northumberland.  Until  the  reign 
of  George  I,  this  mode  of  punishment  was  but  little  used. 
By  statutes  passed  in  the  fourth  and  sixth  years  of  that  King 
(1718  and  1720,)  the  courts  were  authorized  to  order  any 
felons  who  were  entitled  to  their  clergy,  on  conviction,  to 
be  transported  to  the  American  plantations ;  and  after  these 
enactments  the  practice  became  common  enough.  The  col- 
onies to  which  they  were  sent  were  New  York,  New  Jersey, 
Pennsylvania,  Delaware,  Maryland,  Virginia,  North  and 
South  Carolina,  and  after  1733,  to  Georgia.  The  whole 
number  sent  is  estimated  by  Lang  (in  his  History  of  Trans- 
portation,)  at  fifty  thousand.  But  this  emptying  of  the  jails 
of  England  upon  America  did  not  pas-  without  remonstrance 
from  the  colonies,  and  formed  one  of  the  serums  complaints 
set  forth  in  the  enumeration  of  our  grievances  at  the  time 
of  the  Revolution ;  for  England  never  discontinued  the  prac- 
tice until  we  had  achieved  our  independence." 

"The  plan  of  transportation  was  this  :  Owners  and  cap- 
tains of  vessels  conracted  to  carry  the  convicts;  and  as  re- 
muneration for  the  service,  agreed,  on  their  arrival,  to  sell 
them  to  the  planters  for  the  time?  named  in  their  respective 


19 

sentences.  Lang  tells  us  that  these  transported  felons,  male 
and  female,  were  bought  by  the  planters  for  the  terms  spec- 
ified in  their  respective  warrants,  and  worked  with  the  ne- 
gro slaves  under  the  lash  of  an  overseer." 

We  have  seen  in  the  chapter  on  laws,  the  extent  of 
the  master's  powers  and  the  convict's  privileges.  So  com- 
mon and  well  understood  was  the  practice  of  selling  con- 
victs into  colonial  slavery,  that  one  of  the  most  remarkable 
of  England's  writers  of  fiction,  who  lived  at  the  time,  availed 
himself  of  the  existing  custom  to  build  on  it  one  of  the 
most  startling  incidents  of  his  story ;  and  the  "  Moll  Flan- 
ders" of  Defoe  presents  a  picture  of  convicts  -transported 
to  Virginia,  which,  drawn  from  events  around  him,  is  sketched, 
according  to  his  custom,  with  minute  accuracy  of  detail,  and 
wants  no  additional  touch  to  improve  its  verisimilitude. 
As  to  the  criminals  themselves,  their  condition  was  varied 
according  to  circumstances.  If  they  or  their  relations  were 
possessed  of  wealth,  they  had  but  to  offer  the  captain  a  high- 
er price  for  themselves  than  he  could  get  when  he  reached 
America,  and  exposed  them  in  market  overt,  and  then  they 
never  went  into  bondage  nor  were  ever  made  the  subject 
of  a  bid.  Sometimes  too,  when  they  were  poor,  and  conse- 
quently sold,  they  found  a  stimulus  to  seek  the  improvement 
of  their  condition,  and  emerged  from  their  degraded  position. 

An  old  writer,  in  speaking  of  Virginia,  thus  describes 
them :  'They  go  there  poor,  and  come  back  rich;  there  they 
plant,  trade,  thrive  and  increase ;  even  your  transported  fel- 
ons, sent  to  Virginia  instead  of  Tyburn,  thousands  of  them, 
if  we  are  not  misinformed,  have,  by  turning  their  hands  to 
industry  and  improvement,  and,  which  is  best  of  all,  to  hon- 
esty, become  rich,  substantial  planters  and  merchants,  set- 
tled large  families  and  been  famous  in  the  country ;  nay,  we 
have  seen  many  of  them  made  magistrates,  officers  of  mili- 
tia, captains  of  good  ships,  and  masters  of  good  estates.* 

But   sometimes  the  owners  and  masters  of  ships  did 

*  Posthethwayte's  Diet,  of  Commerce,  voi.  ii,  p.  319.  The  Herald's  office, 
which  (it  is  well  known)  preserves  with  great  care  the  genuine  aristocracy  of  Ameri- 
ca, can  doubtless  furnish  a  list  of  these  felons  thus  converted  into  gentlemen.  They 
must  by  no'  means  be  confounded  with  the  "first  families"  of  the  country,  who 
never  thus  stole  into  notoriety. —  Dr.  Hau-ks'  note. 


20 

not  wait  for  the  sentence  of  the  law  to  furnish  them  with  a 
cargo.  The  picture  of  society  in  the  ports  of  England  at 
that  day  brings  to  our  notice,  and  especially  in  London,  the 
habit  of  kidnapping  those  convicted  of  no  crime,  but  who, 
found  perchance  in  a  moment  of  drunkenness,  or  overcome, 
if  sober,  by  brute  force,  were  hurried  on  board  the  vessel 
ready  to  depart,  and  presently  found  themselves  exposed  to 
sale  as  slaves  in  some  one  of  the  American  plantations. 
Children  were  stolen  and  sent  over. 

The  planter  was  much  too  discreet  to  ask  troublesome 
questions,  and  the  captain,  of  course,  told  what  lies  he 
pleased.  Another,  but  small  class  of  temporary  white 
bondmen  was  to  be  found  in  those  who  were  bound  as  ap- 
prentices, both  in  England  and  in  the  provinces ;  these,  how- 
ever, were  mostly  employed  as  house-servants,  or  trained  to 
mechanical  arts,  and  had  but  little  employment  in  agricul- 
ture. The  purchased  convicts  and  negro  slaves  encountered 
the  harder  toil  of  clearing  and  cultivating  the  lands." 

Hawks'  Hist,  of  North  Carolina,  (Fayettevillc,  N.  C.,  1858J  ii,  230. 


"We  fear  that  our  previous  chapters  will  not  have  ac- 
complished one  of  the  purposes  for  which  they  were  writ- 
ten, if  they  have  not  enabled  the  reader,  before  reaching 
this  page,  to  form  for  himself  a  tolerably  accurate  picture 
of  the  general  manners  of  the  different  classes  that  compose 
the  society  of  the  proprietary  times. 

We  say  different  classes,  because  the  artificial  distinc- 
tions of  society  were  prominent  enough.  There  were  edu- 
cated men  in  the  province,  some  of  whom  were  natives, 
who  had  been  sent  in  early  life  for  training  in  English 
schools  and  universities.  They  had  returned  about  the  pe- 
riod of  incipient  manhood,  and  brought  with  them  the  re- 
finements and  habits  belonging  to  the  class  of  educated 
gentry  in  England,  with  which  they  had  so  long  associate*!. 
There  were  also  those  who,  not  native,  had  come  in  maturer 
age  with  similiar  tastes  and  corresponding  cultivation. 
Some  of  these  were  allied  also  to  families  of  rank  in  Eng- 
land, and  added  pride  of  blood  to  the  courtesies  of  gentle 
breeding.  There  was  material  therefore  for  a  quasi  aristoc- 
racy, which  however  was  not  numerous. 

Martin's  History  of  North  Carolina,  i,  279  aud  ii,  48-9,  treats  very  fully  both 
of  the  foreigners  and  convicts. 


21 

Next  there  was  a  class  which  by  shrewdness,  thrift 
and  superior  intelligence,  had  contrived  to  become  rich, 
while  the  masses  remained  poor ;  and  who,  rising  gradually 
as  their  accumulation  increased,  had  become  large  landed 
proprietors,  in  possession  of  some  of  the  best  bodies  of 
land  in  the  country,  the  future  value  of  which  they  had  the 
sagacity  to  foresee  when  they  came  to  the  province  in  its 
infancy It  was  out  of  this  class  that  the  lord  pro- 
prietors usually  selected  their  deputies,  thus  making  them 
members  of  the  council,  and  elevating  them  to  a  level  with 
those  who  constituted  the  pseudo-aristocracy  to  which  we 
have  referred. 

The  next  class  who  were  freemen,  was  composed  of 
the  ordinary  and  uninstructed,  who,  in  England,  would  have 
belonged  to  the  peasantry  or  agricultural  laborers,  some  of 
whom  had  voluntarily  emigrated,  and  were  employed  on  the 
farms  where  they  labored  for  wages.  There  were,  howev- 
er, others  among  this  class  whose  crimes  had  reduced  them 
to  a  temporary  slavery :  these  were  the  transported  con- 
victs, male  and  female,  who  had  been  brought  in  and  sold 

to  the  planters This  bondage  possessed,  however, 

one  redeeming  feature — the  slavery  was  temporary  ;  and 
at  its  close,  the  emancipated  bondsman  was  furnished  with 
both  lands  and  tools,  and  might  become  the  founder  of  a 
new  family  and  a  new  character. 

If  his  conduct  as  a  servant  were  marked  by  submission 
and  fidelity,  his  burdens  were  somewhat  lightened  in  his 
progress  to  freedom,  and  the  sympathies  of  a  generous  and 
pitying  master  were  sometimes  enlisted  in  his  encourage- 
ment and  aid,  when  he  began  the  hard,  but  not  hopeless  task 
of  obtaining  a  new  name,  and  acquiring  property  on  which 
he  could  look  without  the  humiliating  consciousness  that  he 
had  obtained  it  by  crime. 

It  is  of  little  consequence  to  inquire  what  families  now 
deservedly  respectable,  in  the  old  provinces  where  convicts 
were  most  numerous,  had  an  origin  as  humble  as  this. 
That  some  did,  is  certain." 

Hawks'  North  Carolina,  ii,  572-3. 


1703.  "Among  the  first  emigrants,  some  sense  of  re- 
ligion had  been  for  a  while  preserved,  but  the  next  genera- 
tion, reared  in  a  wilderness  where  divine  service  was  hard- 
ly ever  performed,  and  where  private  devotions  cannot  be 
supposed  to  have  been  much  attended  to,  were  rather  re- 


22 

markable  for  loose,  licentious  principles,  and  the  fundamen- 
tal principles  of  the  Christian  religion  were  often  treated 
with  the  ridicule  and  contempt  of  professed  infidelity.  The 
population  of  the  colony  was  composed  of  individuals  of 
different  nations,  and  consequently  of  various  sects :  Scotch 
Presbyterians,  Dutch  Lutherans,  French  Calvinists,  Irish 
Catholics,  English  Churchmen,  Quakers  and  Dissenters; 
emigrants  from  Bermuda  and  the  West  Indies,  which,  from 
their  late  settlements,  could  not  be  places  remarkable  for 
the  education  of  young  people,  in  Chri.-tiauity  and  moralty.'' 
Martins'  Historv  of  North  Carolina  (New  Orleans: 
1829)  i,  218. 

GEORGIA. 

The  original  plan  of  Oglethorpe  was  "  to  provide  an 
asylum  or  place  of  refuge  for  the  honest  industrious  poor, 
and  the  unfortunate,  with  some  view  to  the  relief  of  the  per- 
secuted Protestants  in  Germany.  Among  these  unfortunate 
persons  it  could  not  be  guarded  against  that  numbers,  unfor- 
tunate only  by  their  own  vices  or  follies,  intruded  themselves 
among  the  real  objects  of  charity."  We  have  already 
shown  that  the  foreign  element  in  the  population  was  very 
large.  It  is  clear  that  tin-  Knirlisli  portion  was  not  from 
the  gentry  but  the  paupers  ; — not  from  the  manor-house, 
but  from  the  jail  and  poor-house.  There  were  several  ser- 
mons delivered  1732-1745  before  the  Society  in  London,  of 
Trustees  for  establishing  the  Colony  of  Georgia.  The 
following  is  an  extract  from  one  by  KVv.  George  Watts, 
London,  1736 : 

"And  this  is  a  farther  excellence  of  this  m:si<;\,  that  it 
saves  many  distressed  people  of  our  own,  from  want  and 

destruction The  fact  I  think  is  plain,  that  there 

are  numbers  of  people  that  want  employment,  and  numbers 
more  that  cannot  subsist  on  the  employment  they  have. 
Hence  it  is  that  our  roads  are  infested,  and  our  streets 
thronged  with  wretched  creatures,  forced  to  seek  a  liveli- 
hood from  vice  and  wickedness,  and  living  only  to  corrupt 
others.  Hence  it  is  that  our  prisons  are  full  of  miserable 
men,  useless  to  all  the  purposes  of  society  whilst  they  are 
there,  and  by  too  long  a  restraint,  made  useless  likewise 

when  they  came  out Surely  they  are  still  objects 

of  such  a  charity  (if  any  one  can  lie  found)  that  shall  relieve 
their  distress,  and  cure  their  idleness  and  extravagance  at 


23 

the  same  time.  What  shall  we  do  then  with  these  misera- 
ble, useless  or  pernicious  inhabitants  ? 

Thus  shall  we  erect  a  new  Kingdom  to  ourselves,  out 
of  the  refuse  of  our  own  people,  and  the  subjects  of  neigh- 
boring nations. 

If  ever,  therefore,  there  was  in  reality  a  colony,  what 
it  should  be  by  description,  a  refuge  to  the  poor,  and  ease 
and  security  to  the  rich,  a  nursery  of  people,  and  a  supply 
of  necessaries,  a  reward  to  the  deserving,  and  a  reformation 
to  the  disorderly ;  this,  of  all  others,  seems  most  likely  to 
answer  such  a  character." 

Again  a  sermon  by  Rev.  James  King,  in  1743  pursues 
the  same  theme  of  aid  to  the  poor,  and  refers  to  a  vote  of 
the  House  of  Commons,  29  June,  1742,  providing  for  the 
transportation  of  paupers  by  means  of  this  society.  At  p. 
21,  the  author  writes,  "many  families  of  our  own  poor  hare 
already  settled  there ;  and  they  have  been  joined  by  the  in- 
digent protestants  of  other  countries,  who  have  resorted 
hither  to  supply  the  exigences  both  of  their  bodies  and  their 
souls." 

VIRGINIA. 

As  the  most  conspicuous  claimant  of  a  Cavalier  origin, 
let  Virginia  have  the  benefit  of  most  extensive  quotations. 
I  give  the  first  place  to  an  authority  who  contrasts  Virginia 
with  New  England. 

"It  is  certain  that  the  first  settlers  of  New  England  did 
not  (as  in  some  of  our  Colonies)  come  over  indigent  or 
criminals,  but  as  devout  religious  Puritans ;  they  were  not 
servants  to  the  adventurers  as  in  some  Colonies."  (Douglas* 
vol  1,  part  ii,  371.) 

"The  settling  of  our  sundry  Colonies,  have  been  upon 
several  Occasions  and  from  various  Beginnings.  New  Eng- 
land was  first  settled  by  people  from  England,  tenacious  of 
their  own  non-conformist  way  of  Religious  Worship,  were 
resolved  to  endure  any  Hardships,  viz :  a  very  distant  Re- 
7iioval,  Inclemencies  of  the  Climate,  Barrenness  of  the  soil 
&c.,  in  Order  to  enjoy  their  own  Way  of  Thinking,  called 
Gospel-Privileges,  in  Peace  and  Purity.  Our  liWest  India 

*  A  summary  Historical  and  Political,  of  the  first  planting,  progressive  Im- 
provements and  present  state  of  the  British  settlements  in  North  America.  By  Wil- 
liam Douglas,  M.  D.  Boston,  N.  E.  1749. 


24 

Islands  have  been  settled  or  increased,  some  of  them  by 
Royalists,  some  by  Parliamentarians,  sonic  by  Tories,  .some 
by  Whig*,  at  different  Times  Fugitives  or  Exiles  from  their 
native  Country.  Virginia  and  Maryland  have  been  for  many 
Years  and  continue  to  be  a  sink  for  transported  Criminals. 
Pennsylvania  being  the  property  of  Mr.  Penn,  a  Quaker,  he 
planted  it  with  Quakers,  (as  Lord  Baltimore  for  the  same 
Reason  at  first  planted  Maryland  with  Roman  Catholics)  it 
is  lately  very  much  increased  by  Husbandmen  swarming 
from  Ireland  and  Germany."  Douglas,  vol.  1,  part  i,  115. 

"The  assiduous  and  well-qualified  Agent.  Dummer,  in 
his  ingenious  and  politick  Piece  published  in  London,  17-1, 
writes  'That  the  expense  of  settling  the  Massachusetts  Bay 
Colony  for  the  first  twelve  years,  was  about  200,000«£  ster- 
ling; that  the  settlers  are  neither  necessitous  nor  Criminals'." 
Douglass,  vol.  I,  part  ii,  428. 

"Our  Plantations  in  America,  New  England  excepted, 
have  been  generally  settled.  1.  I'>y  Malcontents  with  the  Ad- 
ministrations from  Time  to  Time ;  2.  By  fraudulent  Debtors, 
as  a  refuge  from  their  Creditors;  and  bv  Convicts  or  Crimi- 
nals, who  chose  Transportation  rather  than  Death."  Doug- 
lass, vol.  I,  part  ii,  490. 

VIRGINIA — CAMPBELL'S  HISTORY. 

1619.  "The  condition  of  the  white  servants  of  the 
colony,  many  of  them  convicts,  was  so  abject  that  men  ac- 
customed to  see  their  own  race  in  bondage  could  look  with 
more  indifference  at  the  worse  condition  of  the  slaves." 
p.  145. 

1619.  "The  planters  at  length  enjoyed  the  blessings 
of  property  and  the  society  of  women.     The  wives  (90) 
were  sold  to  the  colonists  for  one  hundred  and  twenty  pounds 
of  tobacco. . .  .The  price  of  a  wife  afterwards  became  high- 
er." 

1620.  "One  hundred  disorderly  persons  or  convicts 
sent  over  during  the  previous  year  by  the  King's   order 
were  employed  as  servants." 

1621.  Commercial  letter.     "We  send  you  a  shipment, 
one  widow  and  eleven  maids  for  wives  for  the  people  of 
Virginia ;  there  hath  been  especial  care  in  the  choice  of  them. 
There  are  nearly  fifty  more  that  are  shortly  to  come." 

1617 — 22.  "Nor  were  these  settlers  voluntary  emi- 
grants ;  the  bulk  of  them  had  been  sent  over  without  regard 
to  their  choice  by  the  King  or  the  Virginia  Company." 


25 

1648.  ''There  came  yearly  to  trade  above  thirty  ves- 
sels. Many  of  the  masters  and  chief  mariners  of  these  ves- 
sels had  plantations,  houses,  and  servants  in  the  Colony." 

1660.  "A  good  many  republicans  and  puritans  had 
found  their  way  to  Virginia." 

1661.  The  failure  of  the  schemes  proposed  in  the 
Virginia  Assembly,  for  the  establishment  of  towns,  is  attrib- 
uted by  the  author  of  "Virginia's  Cure,"  to  the  majority  of 
the  House  of  Burgesses  who  are  said  to  have  come  over  at  first 
as  servants,  and  who  although  they  may  have  accumulated  by 
their  industry  competent  estates,  yet   owing  to  their  mean 
education,  were  incompetent  to  judge  of  public  matters,  eith- 
er in  church  or  state." 

1670.  "In  the  year  1670,  complaints  were  made  to 
the  General  Court  by  members  of  the  Council  and  others 
being  gentlemen  of  the  counties  of  York,  Gloucester  and 
Middlesex,  representing  their  apprehensions  of  danger  from 
the  great  number  of  felons  and  other  dangerous   villains, 
sent  hither  from  the  prisons  of  England.     Masters  of  ves- 
sels were  prohibited  from  landing  any  such  convicts  or  jail- 
birds." 

1671.  "Captains  Bristow  and  Walbier  were  required 
to  give  security  in  the  sum  of  one  million  pounds  of  tobac- 
co and  cash  that  Mr.  Nevett  should  send  out  the  Newgate- 
birds  within  two  months." 

Mr.  Jefferson  has  made  the  following  remark: — "The 
malefactors  sent  to  America  were  not  sufficient  in  num- 
ber to  merit  enumeration  as  one  class  out  of  three  which 
peopled  America.  It  was  at  a  late  period  of  their  history 
that  the  practice  begun.  I  have  no  book  by  me  which  ena- 
bles me  to  point  out  the  date  of  its  commencement,  but  I 
do  not  think  the  whole  number  sent  would  amount  to  two 
thousand,"  and  he  supposed  they  and  their  descendants  did 
not  in  1786,  exceed  four  thousand,  "which  is  little  more 
than  one  thousandth  part  of  the  whole  population."  Mr. 
Jefferson  appears  to  have  been  mistaken  in  his  opinion  that 
malefactors  were  not  sent  over  until  a  late  period  in  the  an- 
nals of  Virginia;  and  he  probably  underrated  the  number  of 
their  descendants."  Campbell,  p.  270. 

1670.  Population  40,000  of  which  2,000  were  negro 
slaves,  and  6,000  white  servants. 


"Three   kinds  of  servants   are   brought    over.     First, 
such  as  came  upon  certain  wages  by  agreement  for  a  certain 

(4) 


26 

time.  Second,  such  as  are  bound  by  indentures,  commonly 
called  Kids,  who  are  usually  to  serve  four  or  five  years,  and 
third,  those  convicts  or  felons  that  are  transported,  whose 
room  they  had  much  rather  have  than  their  company.  These 
are  to  serve  seven  and  sometimes  fourteen  years ....  To  pre- 
vent too  great  a  stock  of  which  servants  and  negroes,  many 
attempts  and  laws  have  been  in  vain  made.  .  .  .They  after- 
wards rent  a  small  plantation  or  else  turn  overseers."  Hugh 
Jones,  Present  State  of  Virginia,  (1724,)  p.  54. 

"But  for  the  generality,  the  servants  and  inferior  sort 
of  persons,  who  have  either  been  sent  over  to  Virginia  or 
have  transported  themselves  tint  her,  have  been  and  are  the 
poorest,  idlest  and  worst  of  mankind,  the  refuse  of  Great 
Britain  and  Ireland,  and  the  outcast  of  the  people."  Ibid. 
p.  114. 


"  The  country  is  reported  to  be  an  unhealthy  place,  a 
nest  of  rogues,  whores,  dissolute  and  rooking  persons;  a 
place  of  intolerable  labour,  bad  usage  and  hard  diet.  To 
answer  these  several  calumnies,  I  shall  first  show  what  it  was. 
next  what  it  is.  At  the  iirst  settling,  and  many  years  after, 
it  deserved  most  of  these  aspersions,  (nor  were  they  asper- 
sions but  truths). . .  .Then  were  jails  emptied,  youths  se- 
duced, infamous  women  drilled  in. ..  .no  redress  of  griev- 
ances, complaints  paid  with  stripes.  . .  .Yet  was  not  Virginia 
all  this  while  without  divers  honest  and  virtuous  inhabit- 
ants." John  Hammond's  "Leah  and  Rachel,''  London,  1656. 

Robert  Beverly  (I  quote  from  the  edition  published  at 
Richmond  in  1855)  says: 

"Those  that  went  over  to  that  country  first,  were  chief- 
ly single  men  who  had  not  the  incumbrance  of  wives  and 
children  in  England ;  and  if  they  had,  they  did  not  expose 
them  to  the  fatigue  and  hazard  of  so  long  a  voyage,  until 
they  saw  how  it  should  fan-  with  themseive -.  From  hence 
it  came  to  pass,  that  when  they  were  settled  there  in  a  com- 
fortable way  of  subsisting  a  family,  they  grew  sensible  of 
the  misfortune  of  wanting  wives,  and  such  as  had  left  wi ve- 
in England  sent  for  them,  but  the  single  men  were  put  to 
their  shifts.  They  excepted  against  the  Indian  women  on 
account  of  their  being  pagans,  as  well  as  their  complexions, 
and  for  fear  they  should  conspire  with  those  of  their  own 
nation  to  destroy  their  husbands.  Under  this  difficulty  they 
had  no  hopes  but  that  the  plenty  in  which  they  lived  might 
invite  modest  women,  of  small  fortunes,  to  go  over  thither 
from  England.  However,  they  would  not  receive  any  but 


27 

such  as  could  carry  sufficient  certificate  of  their  modesty 
and  good  behavior.  Those,  if  they  were  but  moderately 
qualified  in  all  other  respects,  might  depend  upon  marrying 
very  well  in  those  days,  without  any  fortune.  Nay,  the  first 
planters  were  so  far  from  expecting  money  with  a  woman, 
that  'twas  a  common  thing  for  them  to  buy  a  deserving  wife 
that  carried  good  testimonials  of  her  character,  at  the  price 
of  one  hundred  pounds,  and  make  themselves  believe  they 
had  a  bargain. 

"  §  67.  But  this  way  of  peopling  the  colony  was  only 
at  first.  For  after  the  advantages  of  the  climate  and  the 
fruit  fulness  of  the  soil  were  well  known,  and  all  the  dangers 
incident  to  infant  settlements  were  over,  people  of  better 
condition  retired  thither  with  their  families,  either  to  in- 
crease the  estates  they  had  before,  or  to  avoid  being  perse- 
cuted for  their  principles  of  religion  or  government. 

"  Thus  in  the  time  of  the  rebellion  in  England,  several 
good  cavalier  families  went  thither  with  their  effects  to  es- 
cape the  tyranny  of  the  usurper,  or  acknowledgment  of  his 
title.  And  so  again,  upon  the  Restoration,  many  people  of 
the  opposite  party  took  refuge  there,  to  shelter  themselves 
from  the  king's  resentment.  But  Virginia  had  not  many  of 
these  last,  because  that  country  was  famous  for  holding  out 
the  longest  for  the  royal  family  of  any  of  the  English  do- 
minions.* For  which  reason  the  Roundheads  went,  for  the 
most  part,  to  New  England,  as  did  most  of  those  that  in  the 
reign  of  King  Charles  II  were  molested  on  account  of  their 
religion,  though  some  of  these  fell  likewise  to  the  share  of 
Virginia. 

As  for  malefactors  condemned  to  transportation,  though 
the  greedy  planter  will  always  buy  them,  yet  it  is  to  be 
feared  they  will  be  very  injurious  to  the  country,  which  has 
already  suffered  many  murders  and  robberies,  the  effect  of 
that  new  law  of  England. 

1619.  "One  hundred  idle  and  dissolute  persons  in 
custody  for  various  misdemeanors,  were  transported  by  au- 
thority of  the  King  and  against  the  wishes  of  the  company 
to  Virginia.  .  .  .At  the  accession  of  Sir  Edwin  to  office,  af- 
ter twelve  years  labor,  and  an  expenditure  of  eighty  thous- 


*Yet  our  author  had  already  shown  that  Dennis,  Cromwell's  captain, 
'contrived  a  stratagem  which  betrayed  the  country.  He  had  got  a  considera- 
ble parcel  of  goods  aboard,  which  belonged  to  two  of  the  Council,  and  found 
a  method  of  informing  them  of  it.  By  this  means  they  were  reduced  to  the 
dilemma,  either  of  submitting  or  losing  their  goods.  This  caused  factions 
amongst  them,  so  that  at  last' — we  blush  to  add — 'the  colony  surrendered — 
and  saved  the  goods.'  En  dot  Virginia  quintwn.  The  fifth  crown  had  its 
price  even  for  a  'usurper.' 


28 

and  pounds  by  the  company,  there  were  in  the  colony  no 
more  than  six  hundred  persons,  men.  women,  and  children. 
In  one  year  he  provided  a  passage  for  twelve  hundred  and 
sixty  one  new  emigrants.  Among  these  were  ninety  agree- 
able young  women,  poor  but  respectable  and  incorrupt,  to 
furnish  wives  to  the  colonists ....  This  new  commodity  was 
transported  at  the  expense  of  the  colony  and  sold  to  the 
young  planters,  and  the  following  year  another  consignment 
was  made  of  sixty  young  maids  of  virtuous  education, 
young,  handsome  and  well  recommended.  A  wife  in  the 
first  lot  sold  generally  for  one  hundred  pounds  of  tobacco, 
but  as  the  value  of  the  new  article  became  known  in  the 
market,  the  price  rose,  and  a  wife  would  bring  a  hundred 
and  fifty  pounds  of  tobacco.  A  debt  for  a  wife  was  of  a 
higher  dignity  than  other  debts,  and  to  be  paid  first."  Ga- 
zetcer  of  Virginia. 

Beverly  notes  also  about  these  servants  that  "a  white 
woman  is  rarely  or  never  put  to  work  in  the  ground,  if  she 
be  good  for  anything  else." 

Bishop  Meade  (vol.  i,  p.  89)  speaks  also  of  these  fe- 
male servants : 

"While  the  company  and  the  Governor  were  endeavor- 
ing to  improve  the  condition  of  the  colony,  by  selecting  a 
hundred  young  females  of  good  character  to  be  wives  to  the 
laborers  on  the  farms  of  Virginia.  King  James  had  deter- 
mined to  make  of  the  colony  a  Botany  Bay  for  the  wretched 
convicts  in  England,  and  ordered  one  hundred  to  be  sent 
over.  The  company  remonstrated,  but  in  vain.  A  large 
portion,  if  not  all  of  them,  were  actually  sent.  The  influ- 
ence of  this  must  have  been  pernicious.  Whether  it  was 
continued  by  his  successors,  and  how  long,  and  to  what  ex- 
tent, I  know  not." 

And  again  (pp.  365 — '6),  he  says : 

''The  greatest  difficulty  they  (the  vestrymen)  appear  to 
have  had,  was  with  the  hired  servants,  of  whom,  at  an  early 
period,  great  numbers  came  over  to  this  country  binding 
themselves  to  the  richer  families.  The  number  of  illegitimate 
children  born  of  them  and  thrown  upon  the  parish,  led  to 
much  action  on  the  part  of  the  legislature.  The  lower  order  of 
persons  in  Virginia,  in  a  great  measure,  sprang  from  these  ap- 
prenticed servants  and  from  poor  exited  culprits" 

Stith  says,  (ed.  1747,  p.  103),  under  date  of  1609  : 
"  But  a  great  part  of  this  new  company  consisted  of  un- 


29 

ruly  sparks,  packed  off  by  their  friends  to  escape  worse  des- 
tinies at  home.  And  the  rest  were  chiefly  made  up  of  poor 
gentlemen,  broken  tradesmen,  rakes,  and  libertines,  footmen, 
and  such  others  as  were  much  fitter  to  spoil  or  ruin  a  com- 
monwealth, than  to  help  to  raise  or  maintain  one". 

Again,  (p.  306),  in  describing  one  of  the  domestic  quar- 
rels of  the  colony,  he  copies  a  statement : 

"And  whereas  it  was  affirmed  that  very  few  of  his  maj- 
esty's servants  were  lost  in  those  days,  and  those  persons  of 
the  meanest  rank,  they  replied  that  for  one  that  then  died 
five  had  perished  in  Sir  Thomas  Smith's  time,  many  being  of 
ancient  houses,  and  born  to  estates  of  a  thousand  pounds  a 
year,  some  more,  some  less,who  likewise  perished  by  famine." 

These  extracts  are  ail  that  I  can  urge  in  support  of  the 
claim  of  Virginians  to  be  descended  from  the  English  gentry. 
There  may  be  many  other  authorities ;  it  is  for  the  asserters 
of  this  theory  to  produce  them,  and  I  certainly  would  repub- 
lish  them  if  I  could  obtain  them. 

I  regret  exceedingly  that  I  am  unable  to  present  any 
complete  statement  of  the  number  of  convicts  transported 
from  Great  Britain  to  the  colonies,  with  the  report  of  their 
destination.  Such  records,  no  doubt,  exist  in  England,  and 
can  be  obtained  if  any  one  be  bold  enough  to  challenge  farther 
inquiry.  I  am  able  to  give  a  general  idea  of  the  extent  of 
the  custom,  by  copying  the  notices  made  monthly  among  the 
"Current  Events  "  of  the  Annual  Register  and  the  London 
Magazine. 

These  lists  are  imperfect,  since  the  account  is  mainly 
for  the  sessions  at  the  Old  Bailey,  and  is  not  continuous  and 
full  even  for  these.  We  see  many  indications  that  the  other 
courts  in  Great  Britain  sentenced  many  felons,  and  that  the 
place  of  punishment  was  almost  invariably  Virginia,  Mary- 
land, or  the  Carolinas. 

I  believe  I  am  correct  in  saying  that  the  term  "the  Plan- 
tations in  America,"  was  applied  exclusively  to  our  Southern 
states,  and  did  not  include  any  of  the  West  India  Islands. 

In  December  1717,  there  were  27  sentenced  at  the  Old 
Bailey  to  transportation.  In  1718, 137;  in  1719,  184;  in 
1720,  173;  in  1721,  200;  in  1722,  182;  in  1723,  219;  in 
1724,  226;  in  1725,  290;  in  1726,  234;  in  1727,  187. 


30 

These  are  by  no  means  perfect  lists  being  only  for  various 
months  in  each  year,  and  only  for  the  session  at  the  Old 
Bailey.  The  disposal  of  the  convicts  is  shown  by  notes  like 
these:  "August  1718,  106  convicts  that  were  ordered  for 
transportation,  were  taken  out  of  Newgate,  and  put  into  a 
lighter,  at  Black  fryers  stairs;  from  whence  they  were  i-ar- 
ried  through  Bridge  to  Long  Reach,  and  then  shipped  on 
board  the  Eagle  Galley,  Captain  Staples,  Commander,  bound 
to  Virginia  and  Maryland." 

••May  1719,  105  felons  convict  taken  out  of  New-rate. 
the  Marshalsea,  and  several  other  country  gaols,  were  put 
on  ship-board,  to  be  transported  to  Maryland.''  -'May  17'JO, 
92  felons  convict  out  of  Newgate,  and  62  out  of  the  Mar- 
shalsea, were  put  on  ship-board  to  be  transported  to  Vir- 
ginia." February,  1723,  36  felons  convict  were  taken  out 
of  Newgate,  and  conveyed  on  ship-board,  in  order  to  be 
transported  to  Maryland."  1724,  5  &  6.  "Convict  felons 
shipped  to  the  Plantations  in  America." 

I  find  among  the  items  of  monthly  intelligence  in  the 
London  Magazine,  the  records  of  felons  sentenced  to  trans- 
portation to  his  majesty's  plantations  in  America,  and  often 
the  different  colonies  named.  I  find  a  calculation  incident- 
ally made,  about  1750,  that  500  culprits  were  hung  annually 
in  Great  Britain — and  bloody  as  the  circuits  then  were.  1 
cannot  believe  that  less  than  ten  times  that  number  annually 
received  the  questionable  charity  of  expatriation.  I  will 
give  a  few  extracts,  to  show  the  foundation  upon  which 
Southern  society  has  been  erected. 

In  October,  1732,  "68  men  and  50  women,  felons  con- 
vict, were  carried  from  Newgate  to  Black  Fryars,  and  put 
on  board  a  lighter,  to  be  carried  down  the  river,  to  be 
shipped  on  board  the  Caesar,  off  of  Dcptford,  for  transpor- 
tation to  Virginia."  January,  1736:  "This  morning  140 
felons  convict  for  transportation,  were  carried  from  Newgate, 
and  shipped  for  the  plantations,  and  18  likewise  from  the 
new  gaol  at  South wark."  In  May,  106  were  also  so 
shipped.  In  1738,  126  were  shipped  at  one  time  "for  the 
plantations."  In  1739,  127  were  shipped  "to  America."  In 
1741,  9  of  the  felons  on  board  a  ship  lying  at  Black  wall,  "to 
be  transported  to  Virginia,"  made  a  bold  dash  to  escape. 


31 

In  May  1747,  "  We  are  informed  that  several  large  ships 
sailed  lately  from  Liverpool,  with  the  rebel  prisoners,  under 
strong  convoy  to  Virginia  and  Maryland,  and  other  of  his 
majesty's  plantations,  which  makes  the  whole  of  what  have 
been  transported,  upward  of  1,000."  In  January,  1749, 
"  the  "Laura  "  with  135  convicts,  bound  to  Maryland,  was 
cast  away."  In  1754,  Mr.  Stuart  was  the  contractor  to 
transport  convicts  ''to  America."  In  1758,  "63  men  and 
women  transports  were  sent  from  Newgate  on  board  the 
ship  "  Trial,"  bound  to  Maryland,  and  45  from  the  new  gaol, 
Southwark."  Later  in  the  same  year,  53  "for  America  " — 
36  men  and  20  women  "for  the  plantations."  In  1761,  a 
ship  sails  with  8  men  and  27  women  "convicts  to  America." 
In  October,  "27  women  and  1 8  men  from  Newgate,  14  from 
the  new  gaol,  and  62  from  the  country  goals,  were  transpor- 
ted to  America  this  month."  In  1762,  36  women  and  5  men 
convicts  were  shipped  "to  America ;"  "62  convicts  were  em- 
barked for  Maryland." 

In  1776, 1  find :  "The  above  observation  occurred  to  my 
mind  a  few  days'  ago,  on  seeing  the  convicts  pass  along  to 
the  water  side,  in  order  to  be  shipped  for  America,  with  fifes 
playing  before  them,  "Through  the  wood,  laddie," — an  ev- 
idence that  the  practice  was  then  in  force,  and  a  matter  of 
course. 

In  a  "Tour  through  the  British  Plantations,"  published 
in  the  London  Magazine,  in  1755,  which  contains  a  good  ac- 
count of  each  colony,  I  read  of  Virginia,  that  under  Sir  Edwyn 
Sandys,  "there  were  12,000  acres  laid  off  for  the  use  ofthecom- 
pany,and  100  tenants  or  planters  sent  to  be  placed  thereon ; 
and  3,000  acres  for  the  support  of  the  Governor,  for  the  plant- 
ing of  which,  100  more  men  were  sent;  and  what  was  now 
become  absolutely  necessary,  there  were  no  less  than  90 
young  women,  of  a  healthful  constitution,  and  unspotted 
reputation,  sent  out  to  be  married  to  the  planters,  instead 
of  diseased  and  profligate  strumpets,  as  is  now  the  ridiculous 
practice.  .  .  .  Thus  the  company  and  colony  began  to 
be  in  a  thriving  way :  but  now  they  began  to  be  oppressed 
by  the  Government  here,  for  in  November,  they  were  or- 
dered to  send  over  to  Virginia,  at  their  own  charge,  100  fel- 


32 

ons  or  vagabonds,  then  it  may  be  supposed  in  prison,  which 
they  were  obliged  to  comply  with." 

The  same  writer  says  of  Maryland : 

"The  convicts  that  are  transported  here,  sometimes 
prove  very  worthy  creatures,  and  entirely  forsake  their  for- 
mer follies ;  but  the  trade  has  for  some  time  run  in  another 
channel ;  and  so  many  volunteer  servants  come  over,  espec- 
ially Irish,  that  the  other  is  a  commodity  much  blown  over. 
Several  of  the  best  planters,  or  their  ancestors,  have,  in  the 
two  colonies,*  been  originally  of  the  convict  class,  and  there- 
fore are  much  to  be  praised  and  esteemed  for  forsaking 
their  old  courses." 

In  1751, (p.  293)  is  printed  the  following: 

"A  LETTER  LATELY  PUBLISHED  IN  VIRGINIA." 

"SIR:  When  we  see  our  papers  filled  continually,  with 
accounts  of  the  most  audacious  robberies,  the  most  cruel 
murders,  and  infinite  other  atrocities,  perpetrated  by  con- 
victs transported  from  Europe,  what  melancholy,  what  ter- 
rible reflections  must  it  occasion  !  What  will  become  of  our 
posterity  ?  These  are  some  of  thy  favors,  Britain  !  Thou  art 
called  our  mother  country;  but  what  good  mother  ever  sent 
thieves  and  villains  to  accompany  her  children  ;  to  corrupt 
some  with  their  infectious  vices,  and  murder  the  rest  ?  What 
father  ever  endeavored  to  spread  the  plague  in  his  family  ! 
We  do  not  ask  fish,  but  thou  givest  us  serpents  !  In  what 
can  Britain  show  a  more  sovereign  contempt  for  us,  than  by 
emptying  their  gaols  into  our  settlements,  unless  they  would 
likewise  empty  their  ofi'al  upon  our  tables?  What  must  we 
think  of  that  board,  which  has  advised  the  repeal  of  every 
law  we  have  hitherto  made  to  prevent  this  deluge  of  wicked- 
ness overwhelming  us ;  and  with  this  cruel  sarcasm,  that 
these  laws  were  against  the  public  utility,  for  they  tended 
to  prevent  the  improvement  and  well  peopling  of  the  col- 
onies !  And  what  must  we  think  of  those  merchants,  who 
for  the  sake  of  a  little  paltry  gain,  will  be  concerned  in  im- 
porting and  disposing  of  these  abominable  cargoes  ?" 

I  can  hardly  believe  that  my  readers  will  require  any 
further  proofs,  that  the  idea  that  the  inhabitants  of  the  Seced- 
ing States  are  descended  from  the  English  Cavaliers,  is  en- 
tirely erroneous. 

When  we  descend  from  the  lofty  realms  of  fancy,  in 
which  these  Southern  enthusiasts  dwell,  and  seek  to  discover 


*  Virginia  was  the  other,  of  which  he  was  writing. 


33 

what  proportion,  however  small,  of  truth  there  is  in  the  sto- 
ry, we  arc  almost  unable  to  detect  it.  Genealogy  is  a 
science,  based  upon  facts.  Certain  records,  such  as  the 
official  list  of  births,  deaths,  and  marriages,  preserved  on 
town,  county,  state  or  parish  records,  and,  in  some  cases, 
private  memoranda,  are  the  only  recognized  authorities. 
In  New  England  these  records  have  been  kept  with  remark- 
able accuracy,  since  the  commencement  of  the  settlement. 
In  Virginia,  and  probably  in  the  other  Southern  States, 
these  records  are  wanting.  As  is  shown  by  Bishop  Meade 
in  his  book,  especially  devoted  to  the  history  of  the  "Old 
Churches  and  Old  Families  of  Virginia,"  the  records  of  the 
parishes  have  been  lost,  the  churchyards  destroyed,  and  few 
authorities,  save  tradition,  remain.  Even  in  the  case  of 
the  Washingtons,  a  family  whose  records  have  been  traced 
with  sedulous  care,  there  is  now  no  evidence  of  the  connec- 
tions with  an  English  family,  sufficient  to  satisfy  Heralds 
College.  In  short  there  are  two  hundred  families  in  Massa- 
chusetts having  as  great  a  claim,  through  traditions  and  the 
use  of  coats-of-arms,  to  the  rank  of  gentlemen,  as  the  bulk 
of  the  patrician  families  of  Virginia. 

We  have  therefore  to  glean  here  and  there,  little  frag- 
ments of  truth,  to  prevent  our  styling  the  entire  claim  of 
the  Cavaliers,  a  bold  fabrication.  A  very  few  Virginia  fam- 
ilies can  be  thus  proved  to  have  sprung  from  the  English 
gentry.  The  book  of  Bishop  Meade's,  already  cited,  gives 
the  following  meagre  list,  and  any  other  authorities  are 
still  wanting.  He  names  the  families  of  Ambler,  Barradall, 
Baylor,  Bushrod,  Burwell,  Carter,  Digges,  Fairfax,  Fit zhugh, 
Fowke,  Harrison,  Jacqueline,  Lee,  Lewis,  Ludwell,  Mason, 
Robinson,  Spottswood,  Sandys,  and  "Washington.  I  believe 
I  have  omitted  none,  and  I  have  rather  strained  a  point  in 
admitting  some. 

I  do  not,  of  course,  mean  to  deny  that  others  may  ex- 
ist, but  until  the  proofs  are  submitted  to  examination,  there 
is  no  justice  in  presuming  them  to  exist. 

I  quote  from  Wirt's  Life  of  Patrick  Henry,  the  follow- 

(5) 


ing  description  of  Virginian  society  by  "a  gentleman  who 
lived  in  those  days,  (1768)  and  who  had  the  best  opportuni- 
ties of  judging  on  the  subject :" 

"  There  were  then,  first  aristocrats,  composed  of  the 
great  landholders,  who  had  settled  themselves  below  tide 
water  on  the  main  rivers,  and  lived  in  a  style  of  luxury  and 
extravagance,  insupportable  by  the  other  inhabitants,  and 
which  indeed  ended  in  several  instances,  in  the  ruin  of  their 
fortunes.  Next  to  these  were  what  might  be  called  half-breeds; 
the  descendants  of  the  younger  sons  and  daughters  of  the 
aristocrats,  who  inherited  the  pride  of  their  ancestors,  with- 
out their  wealth. 

Then  came  the  pretenders,  men  who  from  vanity  or 
the  impulse  of  growing  wealth,  or  from  that  enterprise 
which  is  natural  to  talents,  sought  to  detach  themselves 
from  the  plebeian  ranks,  to  which  they  properly  belonged, 
and  imitated  at  some  distance,  the  manners  and  habits  of 
the  great.  Next  to  these  were  a  solid  and  independent 
yeomanry,  looking  askance  at  those  above,  yet  not  ventur- 
ing to  jostle  them.  And  last  and  lowest,  a  feculum  of  be- 
ings called  overseers,  the  most  abject,  degraded,  unprinci- 
pled race  ;  always  cap  in  hand  to  the  dons  who  employed 
them,  and  furnishing  material  for  the  exercise  of  their  pride, 
insolence,  and  spirit  of  domination. 

Does  this  picture  suggest  a  colony  composed  entirely 
of  gentry  or  "  First  Families"  ? 

Again,  it  is  often  most  erroneously  supposed,  that  the 
names  of  certain  families  is  a  proof  of  their  gentle  origin. 
This  idea  is  wholly  unfounded.  The  gentry  of  England 
consist  of  certain  families,  whose  ancestors  held  a  certain 
rank.  Unless  the  line  of  descent  can  be  clearly  proved, 
identity  of  name  signifies  nothing.  We  are  arguing  in 
this  essay,  upon  a  certain  arbitrary  nomenclature,  and  we 
are  bound  by  certain  well-known  rules.  A  Courtenay,  a 
Howard,  a  De  Yere,  is  not  a  gentleman  in  the  sense  the 
heralds  use  the  term,  unless  he  can  trace  his  pedigree.  Yet 
even  here,  the  Yirginians  have  no  exclusive  claim.  The 
following  list  is  given  by  Bishop  Meade,  as  comprising  th<> 
chief  familes  of  the  Virginian  gentry. 

"Names  of  some  of  the  Old  and  Leading  Families  in  Eas- 
tern Virginia,  in  Colonial  Times  and  immediately  succeding 
the  Revolution. — (Meade,  ii,  428.) 


35 

Allen,  Alexander,  Ambler,  Archer,  Armistead,  Atkinson, 
Aylett,  Acril. 

Bacon,  Baker,  Ball,  Baldwin,  Ballard,  Bankhead, 
Banister,  Bassett,  Baylor,  Baynham,  Berkeley,  Beverly, 
Birchett,  Blair,  Bland,  Boiling,  Bouldin,  Booth,  Bowyer, 
Bradley,  Brent,  Braxton,  Bowdoin,  Browne,  Brooke,  Broad- 
naxe,  Burwell,  Burley,  Butler,  Buckner,  Byrd,  Baskerville, 
Branch,  Booker,  Blow. 

Cabell,  Galloway,  Carr,  Carrington,  Carter,  Gary,  Cat- 
lett,  Chamberlayne,  Christian,  Clopton,  Claiborne,  Clayton, 
Clarke,  Cocke,  Coleman,  Coles,  Colston,  Cooper,  Conway, 
Corbin,  Custis,  Crawford. 

Dabney,  Daniel,  Davenport,  Davis,  Dandridge,  Digges, 
Dulany. 

Edmunds,  Edwards,  Eggleston,  Eldridge,  Ellis,  Embry, 
Eppes,  Everard,  Eyre. 

Fairfax,  Farley,  Faulcon,  Field,  Fitzgerald,  Fitzhugh, 
Fleming,  Fry. 

Gay,  Gibbon,  Gilmer,  Goode,  Goodwyn,  Graves,  Gray- 
son,  Green,  Griffin,  Grymes,  Grammat,  Greenway,  Garnet, 
Garland,  Gaines,  Gholson. 

Hackley,  Hansford,  Hardaway,  Harmer,  Harrison,  Har- 
vie,  Herbert,  Hill,  Holliday,  Holmes,  Hooe,  Howard,  Hub- 
ard,  Hairston,  Heath,  Heth,  Hicks,  Hopkins,  Hawkins,  Hod- 
ges, Henderson,  Haynes. 

Innes,  Irby. 

Jefferson,  Jennings,  Johnson,  Jones,  Joynes. 

Kennon,  King. 

Lanier,  Lee,  Lewis,  Lightfoot,  Littlepage,  Littleton,  Lo- 
max,  Ludwell,  Lyons,  Leftwich. 

Mallory,  Martin,  Marshall,  Marye,  Mason,  Massie,  Mat- 
thews, Mayo,  Meade,  Mercer,  Minor,  Meredith,  Meriwether, 
Michie,  Minge,  McCarty,  Moore,  Moseley,  Munford,  Morris, 
Morton,  Mosby. 

Nash,  Nelson,  Newton,  Nichols,  Nivison,Norvell,  Noland. 

Page,  Parke,  Parker,  Peachey,  Pegram,  Pendleton,  Peun, 
Peter,  Peyton,  Phillips,  Pierce,  Pleasant,  Pollard,  Pope,  Pow- 
ell, Poythress,  Prentice,  Price,  Prosser,  Posey. 

Randolph,  Reade,  Riddick,  Roane,  Robinson,  Rose,  Ruf- 
fin,  Russell,  Royall. 

Savage,  Saunders,  Scarburgh,  Selden,  Shepherd,  Short, 
Skelton,  Skepwith,  Slaughter,  Spottswood,  Stanard,  Steven- 
son, Stith,  Stokes,  Steptoe,  Strother,  Swann,  Syme,  Spencer, 


36 

Tabb,  Talbot,  Taliafero,  Tayloe,  Taylor,  Tazewell, 
Terry,  Thornton,  Todd,  Travis,  Trent,  Tucker,  Tyler. 

Upshur,  Upshaw  :     Tenable,  Vaughn. 

Waller,  Walker,  Walton,  Wade,  Ward,  Waryng,  Wash- 
ington, Watkins,  Watson,  West,  Wickham,  Webb,  Whiting, 
Westwood,  Wilkins,  Wilcox,  Willis,  Winston,  Williams,With- 
ers,  Wood,  Woodson,  Wise,  Wonnlcy,  Wyatt,  Wythe. 

Yates,  Yelverton. 

Most  of  the  names  in  this  list  also  occur  in  Savage's  Dic- 
tionary of  the  Settlers  of  New  England;  two  thirds  of  them 
are  to  be  found  in  both  places.  The  proof  is  as  ample  in 
the  one  case  as  the  other.  If  the  Virginians  were  gentle- 
men on  account  of  their  names,  so  were  the  Yankees. 

Again,  I  give  the  following  list  of  Delegates  in  1776, 
comprising  the  most  influential  persons,  but  I  do  not  find  it 
an  epitome  of  the  English  Peerage : 

VIK<;IXIA  CONVKXTIOX,  1776. 

Acrill,  Adams,  Aylett,  Barrister,  Brrki-lcy,  Bird,  Blair, 
Bland,  Booker,  Bowyer,  Brook,  Bullitt,  Burwell,Cabell,  Camp- 
bell, Carrington,  Gary,  Clapham,  Clayton,  Cocke,  Cowper, 
Cralle,  Curie,  Dandridge,  Diggs,  Drew,  Edmunclson,  Farmer, 
Field,  Fitzhugh,  Fleming,  Fulton,  Garland,  Gee,  Gilnier, 
Goode,  Gordon,  Gray,  Harrison,  Harvie,  Harwood,  Henry, 
Hite,  Hold,  Jefferson,  Johnson,  Jones,  Kcnncr.  King,  Lank- 
ford,  Lee,  Lewis,  Lockhart,  Lynch,  Lyne,  Madin,  MacDow- 
ell,  McCarty,  Madison,  Mason.  Mayo,  Mercer,  Meriwether, 
Montague,  Moore,  Muse,  Nelson,  Newton,  Nicholas,  Norvell, 
Page,  Patterson,  Pendleton,  Penn,  Peyton,  Pickett,  Poyth- 
ress,  Randolph,  Reddick,  Reed,  Robinson,  Russell,  Rutherford, 
Savage,  Scott,  Selden,  Simms,  Simpson,  Smith,  Speed,  Starko, 
Strother,  Syme,  Tabb,  Talbot,  Taylor,  Tazewell,  Terry, 
Thornton,  Thoroughgood,  Tipton,  Travis,  Washington,  Wat- 
kins,  Watts,  West,  Whiting,  Wilkins,  Williams,  Winn,  Wood, 
Woodson,  Wythe,  Zane. 

NEW  ENGLAND. 

When  we  commence  an  examination  of  the  ancestry  of 
the  settlers  of  New  England,  we  find  ourselves  at  once  on 
sure  ground.  No  other  community  possesses  the  same  fa- 
cilities for  investigation.  Our  records  are  very  full,  they 
are  open  to  inspection  at  all  times,  and  a  great  number  of 
them  have  been  printed.  We  have  the  only  Genealogical 
Society  in  the  country,  perhaps  in  the  world,  and  in  Savage's 


37 

"Dictionary  of  the  Early  Settlers  of  New  England,"  we  have 
a  collection  of  genealogical  information,  such  as  no  other 
community  possesses  of  its  ancestry.  I  will  first  give  the 
statements,  on  the  subject  of  the  nationality  of  our  ancestors? 
as  presented  by  HUTCHINSON,  SAVAGE,  and  PALFREY,  and  the 
earlier  authorities,  RANDOLPH  and  BRADSTEEET. 

In  1776.  The  Lords  of  the  Privy  Council  sent  to  New 
England  divers  inquiries,  as  to  the  present  state  of  the  col- 
ony. Edmund  Randolph's  report,  printed  in  Hutchinson's 
Collection  of  Papers,  pp.  477 — 505,  contains  the  following 
items : 

P.  484  "  The  inhabitants  within  this  government,  inclu- 
ding Hampshire  and  Maine,  are  computed  to  be  upward  of 
150,000  souls.  The  chief  professions  are  merchants,  who 
are  principally  seated  at  Boston,  Salem,  Charlestown,  and 
Portsmouth,  and  wealthy  shop-keepers  or  retailers,  who 
dwell  in  most  towns  of  the  colony,  and  get  good  estates. 
There  are  rich  men  of  all  callings  and  professions,  and  all 
mechanical  arts  and  occupations  thrive  well. 

The  farmers  are  numerous  and  wealthy,  live  in  good 
houses,  are  given  to  hospitality,  and  make  good  advantage 
by  their  corn,  cattle,  poultry,  butter,  and  cheese. 

There  are  about  30  merchants  that  are  esteemed  worth 
from  £10,000  to  £20,000;  most  have  considerable  estates, 
and  very  great  trades,  and  are  an  industrious  and  thriving 
people.  There  are  no  servants  but  upon  hired  wages,  except 
some  few,  who  serve  four  years  for  the  charge  of  being  trans- 
ported thither  by  their  masters,  and  not  above  200  slaves 
in  the  colony,  and  those  are  brought  from  Guinea  and  Mad- 
agascar. 

There  are  men  able  to  bear  arms,  between  30  and  40- 
000,  and  in  the  town  of  Boston,  is  computed  about  4,000." 

P.  502.  "As  to  the  Colonies  of  New-Plymouth  and 
Connecticut,.  .  .  .the  number  of  inhabitants  in  both  colonies, 
is  computed  to  be  80,000  souls.  There  are  no  slaves,  only 
hired  servants.  The  chief  professions  are  farmers,  graziers, 
and  fishermen.  Very  few  merchants,  they  being  supplied 
with  all  foreign  commodities,  from  Boston.  The  number  fit 
to  bear  arms,  20,000." 

Gov.  Bradstreet  replies  to  the  same  questions  (See  Mass. 
Historical  Society's  Collections,  3d  series,  viii,  p.  336.) 
"  There  have  been  very  few  English  come  to  plant  in  this 
jurisdiction  for  seven  years  past  and  more,  and  few  or  no 
Scots,  Irish,  or  Foreigners  in  the  like  space ;  they  rather  go 

D055 


38 

to  Carolina  or  other  places  more  commodious,  and  less  in- 
habited, for  with  us,  all  the  lands  near  the  sea  coast  are  ap- 
propriated and  improved,  and  up  into  the  country  is  more 
difficult  (especially  for  new  comers)  to  plant  and  subdue,  and 
must  be  done  by  the  settled  inhabitants  by  degrees,  as  di- 
vers towns  already  have  been. 

There  hath  been  no  company  of  blacks  or  slaves  brought 
into  the  country  since  the  beginning  of  this  plantation,  for 
the  space  of  fifty  years,  only  one  small  vessel  about  two  years 
since,  after  twenty  months'  voyage  to  Madagascar,  brought 
hither  betwixt  forty  and  fifty  negroes,  most  women  and  chil- 
dren, sold  here  for  £10,  15,  20,  apiece,  which  stood  the  mer- 
chants in  near  £40,  one  with  another. 

Now  and  then,  two  or  three  negroes  are  brought  hither 
from  Barbadoes  and  others  of  his  Majesty's  plantations,  and 
sold  here  for  about  £20  apiece,  so  that  there  may  be  within 
our  government,  100  to  120,  and  it  may  be  as  many  Scots 
brought  hither  and  sold  for  servants,  in  the  time  of  the  war 
with  Scotland,  and  most  now  married  and  living  here,  and 
about  half  so  many  Irish,  brought  here  at  several  times  as  ser- 
vants." 

Hutchinson  writes  (History  of  Massachusetts,  Isted.  i, 
93)  under  date  of  1640 :  "The  importation  of  settlers  now 
ceased.  The  motive  to  transportation  to  America  was  over 
by  the  change  in  the  affairs  of  England.  They  say  who  then 
professed  to  be  able  to  give  the  best  account,  that  in  298 
ships,  which  were  the  whole  number  from  the  beginning  of 
the  colony,  there  arrived  21,200  passengers,  men,  women, 
and  children,  perhaps  about  4,000  families.  Since  which 
more  persons  have  removed  out  of  New  England  to  other 
parts  of  the  world,  than  have  come  from  other  parts  to  it. 
and  the  number  of  families  may  be  supposed  to  be  less 
rather  than  more  than  the  natural  increase  of  four  thousand. 

Again  in  the  preface  he  writes:  "The  Massachusetts 
colony  may  be  considered  as  the  parent  of  all  the  other  col- 
onies of  New  England.  There  was  no  importation  of  plant- 
ers from  England,  to  any  part  of  the  continent  northward 
of  Maryland,  except  to  the  Massachusetts,  for  more  than 
fifty  years  after  the  colony  began.  In  the  first  two  year* 
about  twenty  thousand  souls  had  arrived  in  the  Massachu- 
setts. Since  then  it  is  supposed  more  have  gone  hence  to 
England,  than  have  come  thence  hither.  Massachusetts-Bay, 
New  Hampshire,  Connecticut,  and  Rhode  Island,  at  this  day 
(1764)  probably  contain  500,000  souls.  A  surprising  in- 
crease of  subjects  of  the  British  crown !" 


39 

Palfrey  writes  in  the  Introduction  to  his  History  of 
New  England :  "The  founders  of  the  commonwealth  of  which 
I  write,  were  Englishmen.  Their  emigration  to  New  Eng- 
land began  in  1620.  It  was  inconsiderable  till  1630.  At 
the  end  of  ten  years  more,  it  almost  ceased.  A  people,  con- 
sisting at  that  time  of  not  many  more  than  twenty  thousand 
persons,  thenceforward  multiplied  on  its  own  soil,  in  remark- 
able seclusion  from  other  communities,  for  nearly  a  century 
and  a  half.  Some  slight  emigration  from  it  took  place  at 
an  early  day  ;  but  they  were  soon  discontinued  ;  and  it  was 
not  till  the  last  quarter  of  the  eighteenth  century,  that  those 
swarms  began  to  depart,  which  have  since  occupied  so  large 
a  portion  of  the  territory  of  the  United  States." 

During  that  long  period,  and  for  many  years  later,  their 
identity  was  unimpaired.  No  race  has  ever  been  more  ho- 
mogeneous than  this  remained,  down  to  the  time  of  the  gen- 
eration now  upon  the  stage.  With  a  near  approach  to  pre- 
cision, it  may  be  said  that  the  millions  of  living  persons,  eith- 
er born  in  New  England,  or  tracing  their  origin  to  natives 
of  that  region,  are  descendants  of  the  twenty-one  thousand 
Englishmen,  who  came  over  before  the  early  emigration  from 
England  ceased  upon  the  meeting  of  the  Long  Parliament. 
Such  exceptions  to  this  statement,  as  belong  to  any  time  pre- 
ceding that  of  the  present  generation,  are  of  small  account. 
In  1651,  after  the  battles  of  Dunbar  and  Worcester,  Crom- 
well sent  some  four  or  five  hundred  of  his  Scotch  prisoners 
to  Boston ;  but  very  little  trace  of  this  accession  is  left.  The 
discontented  strangers  took  no  root.  After  the  revocation 
of  the  Edict  of  Nantes  in  1685,  about  one  hundred  and  fifty 
families  of  French  Huguenots  came  to  Massachusetts,  where, 
though  their  names  have  mostly  died  out,  a  considera- 
ble number  of  their  posterity  are  yet  to  be  found.  A  hun- 
dred and  twenty  Sootch-Irish  families  came  over  in  1719, 
and  settled  in  Londonderry,  in  New  Hampshire  and  else- 
where. Great  numbers  of  foreigners — especially  of  Irish, 
and,  next  to  them,  of  Germans — are  now  to  be  reckoned  in  a 
census  of  New  England ;  but  it  is  chiefly  within  the  last  thir- 
ty years  that  they  have  come,  and  they  remain  for  the  most 
part  unamalgamated  with  the  population  of  English  descent. 

Thus  the  people  of  New  England  are  a  singularly  un- 
mixed race.  There  is  probably  not  a  county  in  England, 
occupied  by  a  population  of  purer  English  blood  than  theirs. 
It  is  a  race  still  more  specially  to  be  characterized  as  repre- 
senting a  peculiar  type  of  the  Englishmen  of  the  seventeenth 
century.  A  large  majority  of  the  early  planters  were  Puri- 
tans. Some  of  the  small  English  settlements  in  the  eastern 


40 

part  of  the  country  were  composed  of  other  elements.  But, 
from  the  early  time  when  these  were  absorbed  by  Massachu- 
setts, their  anti-Puritan  peculiarities  began  to  disappear,  and 
a  substantial  conformity  to  the  Puritan  standard,  became 
universal. 

Sequestered  from  foreign  influences,  the  people  thus  con- 
stituted, was  forming  a  distinct  character  by  its  own  disci- 
pline, and  was  engaged  at  work  within  itself,  on  its  own 
problems,  through  a  century  and  a  half.  Down  to  the  eve 
of  the  war  which  began  in  1775,  New  England  had  little 
knowledge  of  the  communities  which  took  part  with  her  in 
that  conflict.  Till  the  time  of  the  Boston  Port  Bill,  eighty- 
four  years  ago,  Massachusetts  and  Virginia,  the  two  princi- 
pal English  colonies,  had  with  each  other  scarcely  more  rela- 
tions of  acquaintance,  business,  mutual  influence,  or  common 
action,  than  cither  of  them  had  with  Jamaica  or  Quebec. 

This  people,  so  isolated  in  its  pupilage,  has  now  diffused 
itself.  I  am  to  tell  the  early  story  of  a  vast  tribe  of  men, 
numbering  at  the  present  time,  it  is  likely,  some  seven  or 
eight  millions.  Exactness  in  such  an  estimate  is  not  attain- 
able; but  it  would  probably  be  coming  somewhere  near  the 
truth  to  divide  the  present  white  population  of  the  United 
States  into  three  equal  parts;  one,  belonging  to  the  New 
England  stock;  one,  the  posterity  of  English  who  settled  in 
the  other  Atlantic  colonies ;  and  another,  consisting  of  the 
aggregate  of  Irish,  Scotch,  French,  Dutch,  German,  Swedish, 
Spanish,  and  other  immigrants,  and  their  descendants.  Ac- 
cording to  the  United  States'  Census  of  1 850,  the  six  New 
England  States  had  in  that  year  2,705,095  inhabitants,  of 
which  number  305,444  were  of  foreign  birth.  It  would,  I 
suppose,  be  making  a  liberal  allowance  to  refer  the  round 
number  of  half  a  million  of  the  present  inhabitants  of  those 
States,  to  the  modern  immigrations  from  abroad.  On  the 
other  hand,  more  than  seven  hundred  and  fifty  thousand  na- 
tives of  New  England, — often  persons  not  inconsiderable  in 
respect  to  activity,  property  or  influenee — are  supposed  to 
be  now  living  in  other  parts  of  the  Union.  The  New  En- 
gland race  has  contributed  largely  to  the  population  of  the 
great  State  of  New  York,  and  makes  a  majority  in  some  of 
the  new  States  further  west.  Considerable  numbers  of  them 
are  dispersed  in  distant  parts  of  the  world,  where  commerce 
or  other  business  invites  enterprise,  though  they  do  not  often 
establish  themselves  for  life  in  foreign  countries.  I  presume 
there  is  one  third  of  the  people  of  these  United  States — wher- 
ever now  residing — of  whom  no  individual  could  peruse  this 
volume,  without  reading  the  history  of  his  own  progenitors." 


41 

SAVAGE  writes  "That  New-England  was  first  occupied 
by  a  civilized  people,  in  so  short  a  period  before  the  great 
civil  war  broke  out  in  our  mother  country,  though  half  a 
century  and  more  after  its  elementary  principles  began  to 
ferment,  especially  in  Parliament,  and  almost  in  every  par- 
ish in  the  Kingdom,  was  a  very  fortunate  event,  if  it  may 
not  be  thought  a  providential  arrangement  for  the  happiness 
of  mankind.  Even  if  our  views  be  restricted  to  the  lineal 
origin  of  those  people  here,  when  the  long  protracted  impol- 
icy of  Great  Britain,  drove  our  fathers  into  open  hostility, 
and  forced  them  to  become  a  nation  in  1776,  in  that  century 
and  a  half  from  its  colonization,  a  purer  Anglo  Saxon  race 
would  be  seen  on  this  side  of  the  ocean  than  on  the  other. 
Within  forty  years  a  vast  influx  of  Irish,  with  not  a  few  thou- 
sand Scotch  and  Germans,  has  spread  over  this  new  country, 
but  certainly  more  than  four-fifths  of  our  people  *  still  count 
their  progenitors  among  the  ante-revolutionary  colonists. 

From  long  and  careful  research,  I  have  judged  the  pro- 
portion of  the  whole  number  living  here  in  1775,  that  deduce 
their  origin  from  the  Kingdom  of  England,  i.  e.  the  South- 
ern part  of  Great  Britain,  excluding  also  the  principality  of 
Wales,  to  exceed  ninety-eight  in  a  hundred.  Every  county 
from  Northumberland  to  Cornwall,  Kent  to  Cumberland, 
sent  its  contribution  of  emigrants,  and  the  sparse  population 
of  the  narrow  shire  of  Rutland  had  more  than  one  offshoot 
in  New  England.  But,  during  that  interval,  great  was  the  di- 
versity of  circumstances  between  the  old  and  new  country,  so 
far  as  the  increase  of  their  number  by  incoming  of  strangers 
was  affected.  In  1660,  the  restoration  of  Charles  II — in 
1685,  the  expulsion  of  the  two  hundred  thousand  Protestants 
from  France,  the  desired  invasion  of  William  and  Mary,  in 
1688,  and  the  settlement  of  the  House  of  Hanover,  in  1714, 
each  brought  from  the  continent  an  infusion  upon  the  origi- 
nal stock,  the  aggregate  of  which  may  not  have  been  less 
than  five  or  six  per  cent,  of  that  into  which  it  was  ingrafted. 

Yet  hardly  more  than  three  in  a  thousand,  for  instance 
of  Scottish  ancestry,  almost  wholly  the  migration  of  the  hero- 
ic defenders  of  Londonderry,  that  came  as  one  hundred  and 
twenty  families  in  1718  and  19,  could  be  found  in  1775, 
among  dwellers  on  our  soil ;  a  smaller  number  still  of  the 
glorious  Huguenot  exiles  above  thirty  years  longer  had  been 
resident  here,  and  may  have  been  happy  enough  by  natural 
increase  (though  I  doubt  it)  to  equal  the  latter  band.  If 
these  be  also  counted  three  in  a  thousand,  much  fewer,  though 
earler  still,  must  be  the  Dutch  that  crept  in  from  New  York, 

*  Mr.  Savage  must  be  understood  as  speaking  of  New  England. 

(6) 


42 

chiefly  to  Connecticut,  so  that  none  can  believe  they  reach 
two  in  a  thousand ;  while  something  less  must  be  the  ratio 
of  Irish.  Germany,  Italy,  Sweden,  Spain,  Africa,  and  all  the 
rest  of  the  world,  together,  did  not  outnumber  the  Scotch 
or  the  French  singly.  A  more  homogeneous  stock  cannot 
be  seen  I  think,  in  any  so  extensive  a  region,  at  any  time 
since  that  when  the  ark  of  Noah  discharged  its  passengers 
on  Mount  Ararat,  except  in  the  few  centuries  elapsing  before 
the  confusion  of  Babel. 

What  honorable  ancestry  the  body  of  New  England 
population  may  assert,  has  often  been  proclaimed  in  glow- 
ing language ;  but  the  words  of  William  Stoughton,  in  his 
Election  sermon,  1688,  express  the  sentiment  with  no  less 
happiness  than  brevity  ;  '  GOD  SIFTED  A  WHOLE  NATION 

THAT  HE  MIGHT  SEND  CHOICE  GRAIN    INTO  THE  WILDERNESS'." 

It  seems  almost  superfluous  to  add  any  corroboration  of 
these  opinions  ;  yet  the  case  may  be  strengthened  by  a  de- 
tail of  our  authorities.  Mr.  SAVAGE'S  Dictionary,  from  the 
preface  of  which  the  previous  paragraphs  are  cited,  con- 
sists of  four  volumes  embracing  over  twenty-five  hundred, 
closely  printed,  octavo  pages.  He  attempts  to  give  the 
first  three  generations  of  those  who  settled  in  New  Eng- 
land before  1692.  However  imperfect  the  book  may  be  in 
the  record  of  the  children,  he  has  unquestionably  obtained 
the  names  of  nineteen-twentieths  of  those  who  settled  here 
previous  to  1 640,  the  date,  when,  as  Hutchinson  says,  the 
immigration  ceased,  and  these  names  confirm  entirely  his 
assertion,  that  the  settlers  were  English.  Of  the  4000 
heads  of  families,  one  third  at  least  had  taken  the  freeman's 
oath  by  that  time,  and  their  names  are  printed  in  the  Mas- 
sachusetts Records.  Massachusetts,  Plymouth,  Rhode  Isl- 
and and  Connecticut,  have  all  issued  volumes  containing 
the  early  records  of  the  respective  colonies.  Nearly  all  the 
older  towns  have  their  histories  carefully  prepared  and 
printed.  Of  those  not  yet  published,  I  believe  hardly  one 
can  be  named  whose  records  have  not  been  examined  in  aid 
of  Mr.  Savage,  or  for  the  use  of  our  numerous  genealogists. 
Our  county  registries  of  deeds,  the  records  of  births,  mar- 
riages, and  deaths,  preserved  in  every  town,  and  the  regis- 
tries of  the  different  parishes,  are  all  very  complete,  are 
open  to  inspection  freely  and  gratuitously,  and  have  been 


43 

consulted  by  hundreds  of  our  writers.  We  have  a  Genea- 
logical Society,  which  has  published  seventeen  annual  vol- 
umes, averaging  nearly  four  hundred  pages  each,  devoted  to 
the  history  of  New  England  families.  Genealogy  has  been 
a  favorite  study  here,  and,  as  Sir  Bernard  Burke  writes, 
"  for  ten  or  twelve  years  before  the  civil  conflict  broke  out, 
Massachusetts  was  more  genealogical  than  Yorkshire,  and 
Boston  sustained  what  London  never  did,  a  magazine  devo- 
ted exclusively  to  genealogy." 

When  I  prepared  a  "  Handbook  of  American  Genealo- 
gy," in  1862,  the  list  comprised  222  genealogies,  16  tabular 
pedigrees,  and  59  town  histories  and  collections,  and  of  the 
genealogies,  not  half  a  dozen  were  of  other  than  New  Eng- 
land families.  It  is  almost  certain  that  there  are  extant 
more  printed  pages  of  genealogical  information  relative  to 
the  eight  generations  of  families  here,  than  there  are  rela- 
tive to  the  history  of  English  families  since  the  Conquest. 

Is  it  too  much  to  claim,  therefore,  that  we  are  dealing 
with  facts  and  not  conjectures,  when  we  say  that  whatever 
was  the  case  in  other  colonies,  New  England  was  and  is 
thoroughly  English  and  homogeneous  ? 

In  pursuance  of  the  plan  adopted,  having  shown  the 
nationality  of  the  colonists  of  New  England,  it  is  necessary 
to  speak  of  their  social  position  prior  to  their  emigration 
from  England.  Having  demonstrated  that  our  ancestors 
were  not  convicts,  nor  the  outcasts  of  society  swept  from 
the  wretched  dens  of  the  great  cities  by  a  disdainful  char- 
ity, anxious  only  to  be  rid  of  them,  we  might  well  pause, 
content  to  say  that  they  were  at  least  equal  to  the  ances- 
tors of  that  portion  of  the  English  people  of  the  present 
day,  which  includes  the  respectable  classes. 

As  however  a  false  impression  has  been  given  by  the 
use  of  the  terms  Cavalier  and  Roundhead,  let  us  pursue 
the  investigation  a  little  farther.  MACAULAY  has  sketched 
the  origin  of  these  parties,  and  familiar  as  his  descriptions 
may  be,  we  may  here  repeat  them.  He  says  "when,  in  Oc- 
tober, 1641,  the  Parliament  reassembled,  after  a  short  re- 
cess, two-  hostile  parties,  essentially  the  same  with  those, 
which,  under  different  names,  have  ever  since  contended, 


44 

and  are  still  contending,  for  the  direction  of  public  affairs, 
appeared  confronting  each  other.  During  some  years  they 
were  designated  as  Cavaliers  and  Roundheads.  They  were 
subsequently  called  Tories  and  Whigs,  nor  does  it  seem 
that  these  appellations  are  likely  soon  to  become  obsolete." 

"When  the  rival  parties  first  appeared  in  a  distinct 
form  they  seemed  to  be  not  unequally  matched.  On  the 
side  of  the  government  was  a  large  majority  of  the  nobles 
and  of  those  opulent  and  well-descended  gentlemen  to 
whom  nothing  was  wanting  of  nobility  but  the  name. 
These,  with  the  dependents  whose  support  they  could  com- 
mand, were  no  small  power  in  the  state.  On  the  same  side 
were  the  great  body  of  the  clergy,  both  the  universities 
and  all  those  laymen  who  were  strongly  attached  to  epis- 
copal government,  and  to  the  Anglican  ritual.  These  respec- 
table classes  found  themselves  in  the  company  of  some  allies 
much  less  decorous  than  themselves.  The  Puritan  austeri- 
ty drove  to  the  kings'  faction,  all  who  made  pleasure  their 
business,  who  affected  gallantry,  splendor  of  dress,  or  taste 
in  the  lighter  arts.  With  these  went  all  who  live  by  amus- 
ing the  leisure  of  others,  from  the  painter  and  comic  poet, 
down  to  the  rope-dancer  and  Merry  Andrew,  for  these  ar- 
tists well  knew  they  might  thrive  under  a  superb  and  luxu- 
rious despotism,  but  must  starve  under  the  rigid  rule  of  the 
precisians." 

"The  main  strength  of  the  Opposition  lay  among  the 
small  freeholders  in  the  country,  and  among  the  merchant 
and  shop-keepers  of  the  towns.  But  these  were  headed 
by  a  formidable  minority  of  the  aristocracy  ;  a  minority 
which  included  the  rich  and  powerful  Earls  of  Northumber- 
land, Bedford,  Warwick,  Stamford,  and  Essex,  and  several 
other  lords  of  great  wealth  and  influence.  In  the  same 
ranks  were  found  the  whole  body  of  Protestant  Non-con- 
formists, and  most  of  those  members  of  the  Established 
Church,  who  still  adhered  to  the  Calvinistic  opinions,  which, 
forty  years  before,  had  been  generally  held  by  the  prelates 
and  clergy.  The  municipal  corporations  took,  with  few  ex- 
ceptions, the  same  side.  In  the  House  of  Commons,  the 
Opposition  preponderated,  but  not  very  decidedly." 


45 

We  see  by  this  statement,  that  the  Cavaliers  of 
Charles'  time  were  not  a  class  distinct  from  the  Round- 
heads. Even  the  absurd  distinction  which  Southern  wri- 
ters attempt  to  make,  is  untenable.  The  Cavaliers  were  no 
better  gentlemen  than  their  opponents  ;  and  the  preponde- 
rance in  the  proportion  was  probably  in  favor  of  the  Puri- 
tans. 

A  slight  digression  may  render  plainer  a  matter  which 

has  been  obscured  by  the  falsehoods  of  Southern  writers  and 
their  English  allies.  A  gentleman,  in  English  Heraldry, 
taking  the  largest  definition,  is  a  man  whose  ancestors  at  a 
certain  time  used  coats-of-arms,  and  had  a  certain  rank. 
This  gentility  of  birth  being  inheritable  may  descend  to  a 
person  of  any  rank ;  the  proof  of  his  pedigree  being  all  suf- 
ficient. Of  late  years,  the  rule  has  fallen  into  neglect,  and 
probably  not  one  quarter  of  the  Englishmen  who  style  them- 
selves gentlemen,  and  use  armorial  bearings,  could  establish 
their  rights.  In  common  usage,  this  distinction  being  for- 
gotten, we  term  a  man  a  gentleman  by  birth  whose  ances- 
tors have  possessed  wealth  and  social  position  for  two  or 
three  generations.  Now,  accepting  this  definition,  it  is  eas- 
ily to  be  proved  that  a  greater  number,  perhaps  a  greater 
proportion,  of  our  New  England  settlers  were  of  this  rank 
than  in  the  whole  of  the  colonies  embraced  in  the  Confeder- 
ate States.  The  whole  point  is  one  of  enumeration  and  fig- 
ures, and  does  not  properly  belong  to  this  essay.  Should  the 
assertion  be  questioned,  the  facts  can  easily  be  produced, 
and  names  given.  More  than  this,  in  the  heraldric  sense, 
New  England  possesses  a  much  larger  proportion  of  gentle 
blood  than  the  entire  South.  No  one  supposes  that  very 
many  representatives  of  old  English  families  abandoned  their 
homes  and  came  to  New  England,  Virginia,  or  the  Carolinas. 
But  the  great  middle  class  of  that  day  did  send  forth  a  great 
number  from  its  ranks  to  New  England,  even  as  the  work- 
houses and  gaols  sent  their  swarms  to  people  Virginia  and 
the  other  Southern  colonies. 

The  old  county  families  must  have  contributed  largely 
to  the  very  class  from  which  our  ancestors  here  were  sup- 
plied. The  men  who  lost  their  lands  by  war,  by  subdivis- 


4G 

ion  or  misfortune,  the  whole  category  of  younger  sons,  all 
contributed  to  the  class  of  merchants  and  tradespeople, 
which  rose  to  such  importance  during  the  reigns  of  Eliza- 
beth and  James.  Whoever  considers  the  present  condition 
of  the  laboring  population  of  England,  and  their  probable 
position  two  centuries  ago,  will  feel  convinced  that  it  was 
not  there,  that  we  should  find  men  with  the  means,  intelli- 
gence, and  devotion,  which  the  early  emigrants  possessed. 

It  is  impossible  to  discuss  here  the  question  of  the  per- 
centage of  gentle  blood  in  New  England.  Such  discus- 
sions belong  to  genealogists,  and  are  too  personal  and  trivial 
to  be  suffered  to  draw  us  from  the  main  point.  We  are 
content  with  our  ancestors,  so  far  as  we  can  trace  their  his- 
tory in  this  country ;  it  is  only  in  reply  to  the  falsehoods  of 
our  opponents,  that  we  need  retort. 

If  we  leave  the  dry  details,  which  I  have  presented  sim- 
ply as  indications  of  the  method  in  which  this  question  can 
be  discussed,  and  regard  the  problem  in  a  more  general  view, 
it  is  surprising  to  see  how  theory  and  fact  agree.  The  United 
States  are  essentially  English  to-day,  despite  the  millions  of 
foreigners  which  have  been  absorbed  into  its  population. 
The  tendency  of  its  citizens  has  been  toward  a  democracy, 
and  yet  not  toward  anarchy  and  lawlessness.  The  throes  of 
a  gigantic  revolution  have  not  sufficed  to  outweigh  the  in- 
stinctive love  of  law  and  order,  peculiar  to  the  English  race. 

When  we  enquire  what  controlling  influence  has  im- 
pressed this  form  upon  the  national  character,  the  enemies 
of  the  predominant  party  instinctively  show  that  it  is  New 
England.  Not  the  comparatively  limited  New  England  of 
1863,  but  the  New  England  stock  and  influence,  which  has 
invigorated  nearly  every  State  of  the  Union.  In  their  ig- 
norance of  the  past,  these  revilers  of  New  England  have  been 
blindly  attacking  a  greater  fact  than  they  were  aware  of.  Not 
only  is  nearly  a  third  part  of  our  native-born  population  the 
offspring  of  the  New  England  of  the  Revolution,  but  long 
before  that  time  the  intermixture  had  commenced.  White- 
head's  "New  Jersey"  (p.  159)  quotes  Governor  Burnet's  let- 
ter, written  in  1729  : 

"The  people  of  New  Jersey  (being  generally  of  New 


47 

England  extraction,  and  therefore  enthusiasts)  would  con- 
sider the  number  of  planters,  etc.,  as  a  repetition  of  the  same 
sin  as  David  committed  in  numbering  the  people." 

The  History  of  Dorchester,  Massachusetts,  quotes  a  let- 
ter from  the  Secretary  of  Georgia,  in  1755,  in  relation  to  a 
colony  from  that  town,  in  which  he  says  : 

"I  really  look  upon  these  people  moving  here  to  be  one 
of  the  most  favorable  circumstances  that  could  befall  the  col- 
ony." 

It  is  added : 

"  This  settlement  has  furnished  Georgia  with  two  gov- 
ernors, two  of  its  most  distinguished  judges,  the  theological 
seminary  of  South  Carolina  and  Georgia  with  an  able  pro- 
fessor, the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church  with  an  influential 
and  pious  bishop,  the  Presbyterian  and  Baptist  Churches  of 
that  State  with  many  of  their  ablest  and  most  useful  minis- 
ters ;  and  six  of  her  sons  have  been  called  away  to  profes- 
sional chairs  in  collegiate  institutions." 

The  first  attempt  at  colonizing  the  Mississippi  delta, 
was  made  by  the  Lymans,  Dwights,  and  their  associates 
from  Connecticut.  New  York  received  a  constant  accession 
from  New  England  long  before  1775. 

Here,  then,  history  and  theory  both  agree.  New  En- 
gland, colonized  by  Englishmen,  homogeneous  in  a  remarka- 
ble degree,  has  been  the  only  thoroughly  pure  nationality 
within  our  territories.  The  few  stray  Englishmen  of  educa- 
tion in  the  Southern  colonies,  the  much  greater  number  of 
convicts,  the  increasing  immigration  of  French,  Irish,  Scotch, 
and  German  settlers,  have  not  only  failed  to  overwhelm  this 
compact  and  thoroughly  alive  minority,  but  have  been  formed 
and  moulded  into  shape  by  it.  In  protesting  against  New 
England,  the  Vallandighams  and  Coxes  are  only  proving  the 
nullity  of  "expunging  resolutions."  "Can  they  make  that 
not  to  be  which  has  been  ?"  Until  they  can  recall  the  past, 
annihilate  the  past  inhabitants  of  these  States,  and  from 
stones  raise  up  some  other  progenitors  for  the  present  gener- 
ation, they  cannot  destroy  the  influence  of  New  England. 

And  yet  we  are  called  upon  to  believe  that  the  race 
which  has  thus  done  the  greatest  work  of  the  past  two  cen- 
turies, was  the  random  aggregation  of  opposite  and  mongrel 


48 

races,  the  offspring  of  ignorance,  poverty,  and  crime.  AVc 
are  to  believe  that  while  the  pure  blood  of  English  gentle- 
men in  Virginia,  has  produced  not  only  the  gentlemanly  vi- 
ces of  pride,  treachery,  and  falsehood  in  the  leaders,  but  the 
ignoble  faults  of  crime  and  debasement  in  the  "  poor  trash, " 
that  some  occult  influence  of  climate  has  advanced  an  entire 
community  at  the  North  far  above  the  position  of  its  progen- 
itors— that  while  the  gentle  Cavalier  has  been  overcome  1  >y 
the  seductive  charms  of  luxury  and  repose,  the  ignoble  Puri- 
tan has  thrown  off  his  degrading  antecedents,  and  has  ob- 
tained the  control  of  the  allied  races.  The  servant  has  be- 
come the  master,  the  scum  of  all  nations  has  overpowered 
the  choicest  offspring  of  that  race  which  Macaulay  terms  "the 
hereditary  rulers  of  mankind." 

These  conclusions,  so  eminently  logical  and  convincing, 
we  must  believe,  or  we  must  doubt  the  pure  blood  of  the 
aristocracy  of  the  Slave  States. 

Is  it  not  more  reasonable  to  believe,  as  facts  daily  prove, 
that  New  England  was  colonized  from  the  hardiest  and  best 
portion  of  the  English  stock?  That  our  a'ice.-tors,  accept- 
ing the  state  of  English  society  as  a  fact,  neither  invited  nor 
repelled  the  accession  of  the  gentry.  That  many  of  that 
class  did  join  in  the  enterprise,  and  that,  where  they  were 
worthy,  they  received  the  slight  preference  which  is  accorded 
to  personal  advantages  of  any  sort.  That  the  bulk  of  the 
colonists  were  separated  from  this  class  by  slight  barriers, 
that  many  of  them  were  excluded  only  by  a  want  of  the  nec- 
essary property  to  maintain  the  position,  and  that  on  this 
new  territory,  these  distinctions  were  speedily  forgotton — 
not  because  the  higher  class  deteriorated,  but  because  the 
lower,  having  but  a  slight  advance  to  make,  soon  stood  on 
an  actual  equality  with  them. 

If  the  sympathy  of  England  were  now  as  desirable  and 
as  strongly  expected  as  it  was  two  years  ago,  I  might  urge 
the  matter  further.  As  it  is,  it  seems  sufficient  to  overthrow 
the  claims  of  Southerners,  based  upon  false  pretenses,  and 
supported  only  by  unblushing  effrontery,  and  to  refute  the 
slanders  which  have  been  thrown  upon  an  entire  section  of 
the  loyal  States. 


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